• Arrest warrant issued by Matara MC on Friday
• CID yet to locate ex-IGP
• Pub. Sec. Min. confirms fugitive in SL

The Criminal Investigation Department (CID) is yet to locate former Inspector General of Police (IGP) Deshabandu Tennakoon, following an arrest warrant issued by the Matara Magistrate’s Court (MC) on Friday (28 February), The Sunday Morning reliably learns.

The division has deployed several teams to locate the whereabouts of the former IGP, but they have been unable to locate him, as informed to The Sunday Morning.

However, when contacted, Ministry of Public Security Secretary Ravi Seneviratne confirmed that Tennekoon had not left the country. 

“He is in Sri Lanka and the CID is trying to locate him,” he said.

The Matara MC had issued the arrest warrant for Tennakoon in connection with a shooting incident outside the W15 Hotel in Weligama in 2023. 

The order includes the arrest of seven other Colombo Crimes Division (CCD) personnel.

The Matara Magistrate’s Court also issued a foreign travel ban on Tennakoon yesterday (1). 

Meanwhile, Minister of Public Security and Parliamentary Affairs Ananda Wijepala, while claiming that he was unaware of the efforts of the CID (at the time of going to press) to arrest Tennakoon, asserted that nobody was above the law.

“We are not on a witch hunt, but if a person has committed a crime, then investigations must be conducted. We did not unleash the CID or Police on him; it is the courts which have ordered his arrest,” he stated.

Wijepala emphasised that the CID was duty-bound to enforce the magisterial order to arrest Tennakoon. “An IGP being arrested may be perceived by some to be controversial, but it must be understood that nobody is above the law. In the past, Pujith Jayasundara was also arrested, so an IGP being arrested is not a new thing,” he added.