This past week saw the senior leadership of the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) come under extraordinarily acute attack, with the elite sleuth arm’s Director SSP Shani Abeysekara being accused of wrongdoing in a number of lawsuits, press conferences and media releases by defence counsel representing underworld kingpin Makandure Madhush, murder convict and former DIG Vaas Gunawardena, SLPP Presidential Candidate Gotabaya Rajapaksa, and members of the Tripoli white van platoon.
These criticisms were amplified in a letter from Attorney-General Dappula De Livera to Acting IGP Chandra Wickremaratne released to the media Friday (23), severely reprimanding the CID and asking the IGP to reassign several critical cases to senior and competent police officers.
Previously, in July, Abeysekara had complained to the Colombo Fort Police about an attorney, Manoj Gamage, having publicly threatened him at a press conference connected with the CID investigation involving Dr. Shafi Shahabdeen.
On Monday (19), attorney Jaliya Samarasinghe, appearing for underworld kingpin Makandure Madush, who is currently being detained at the CID headquarters, filed a motion at the Colombo Fort Magistrates Court claiming that Madush had been illegally detained by Abeysekara. He sought a foreign travel ban on the CID director. Magistrate Ranga Dissanayake deferred the case until August 29.
The following day, Tuesday (20), Madush’s attorney Jaliya Samarasinghe, with Asanka Perera and Buddhika Malwana, filed a case against the CID Director in the Colombo Chief Magistrates Court seeking his prosecution in connection with flaws in the investigation involving another client, former DIG Vaas Gunawardena, who was convicted by the three-judge Trial-at-Bar after an investigation by Abeysekara revealed that he ran a contract killer squad with his son and police officers under his command. In this matter, too, Samarasinghe and his colleagues sought a foreign travel ban on Abeysekara.
Meanwhile, on the same day, Gamage went to the Fort Police station to make a statement in connection with the complaint made against him by Abeysekara. Speaking to the media after giving a statement, Gamage insisted that he would not be found guilty of wrongdoing and insisted that Abeysekara should be prosecuted if any misconduct had occurred in the investigation involving Dr. Shafi Shihabdeen.
The CID has faced serious backlash for exposing the role of senior police and medical officers in Kurunegala in fabricating evidence against the Muslim doctor to concoct an excuse to arrest him. Their investigations have resulted in the transfer of Kurunegala DIG Kithsiri Jayalath and other local officers to enable disciplinary investigations against them. Extremist forces had come down hard on the CID for exposing the fabrication of evidence against Dr. Shihabdeen.
After Gamage had spoken to the media, he was followed by former army officer and Attorney Ajith Prasanna, who has frequently defended SLPP presidential candidate Gotabaya Rajapaksa and members of naval and military intelligence who are accused of wartime abductions for ransom and murder of innocent youth, and of conducting systematic white van abductions and murder operations on journalists.
Last week, Sunday Observer reported on Prasanna’s two previous arrests, including an arrest for assaulting a police officer with a Sri Lankan flag.
Prasanna, who had been convicted by an army court martial on two charges involving refusing to lead his troops into battle and was caught and pleaded guilty to cheating on a promotion exam, has frequently criticized the CID for holding military personnel accountable for Rajapaksa era abuses. On this occasion, Prasanna dared the CID to take him to court, and stated that Abeysekara and several other named CID officers were “criminals” who had made arrangements to flee to Australia and obtain Australian citizenship before they could be made to answer for their crimes. Prasanna has never substantiated this allegation, and previous allegations he made have been refuted.
On Friday, Fort Magistrate Jayaratne dismissed the case against Abeysekara alleging he had mishandled the murder investigation in which former DIG Vaas Gunawardena was convicted, on the grounds that it was frivolous and without merit.
According to police sources, the suits filed by Samarasinghe are widely seen by sleuths as retaliatory action for the CID barring the attorney from visiting Makandure Madush.
On a previous occasion when he had Madush, CID officers allegedly caught Samarasinghe illegally warning Madush not to participate in evidence recovery activities or disclose to investigators the details of his previous phone numbers or involvements with senior political figures. CID officers had expelled him from the premises after Madush told investigators that Samarasinghe did not represent him and that this advice was unsolicited. The CID then reported the incident to the Kesbawa Magistrates Court.
The pressure on the CID director and the agency’s investigations intensified when Ravana Balakaya Convenor and staunch SLPP supporter Ven. Ittakande Saddhatissa Thera threatened SSP Abeysekera in front of the Police Headquarters in Colombo last Friday. When guards prevented the hardline monk from entering the HQ with his mobile phone, he stood outside the building and threatened to surround the building if his complaint about Minister Rishard Bathiudeen was not investigated by “Wednesday or Thursday” next week. Pointing in the direction of the CID offices, the monk threatened SSP Abeysekera, saying that he would be taught a “proper lesson” in three months. “Across the road there is a fellow called Shani. He has arrested 28 army officers including captains and majors and colonels. Just wait, he has only three more months and then we will teach him a proper lesson,” the Ravana Balakaya Convenor charged.
The most surprising broadside against the CID Director however came from a wholly unexpected quarter a few hours after the statement made by the Ravana Balakaya Convenor on Friday afternoon, when Attorney General Dappula De Livera released to the media a copy of his letter to Acting IGP Chandana Wickremaratne in which he tore down the CID’s painstaking investigations into five high profile cases as “lacking in evidence, unable to pinpoint suspects and taking several years to complete.’’
Publicly dressing down the police for forwarding him incomplete reports on investigations that remain open at the CID, Attorney General De Livera hints that Abeysekera and his team must be replaced.
“I urge you to refrain from sending me uncertain reports, appoint suitable officials to lead these investigations and give them the necessary advice and instructions to conduct a prompt, fruitful and efficient investigation. You are hereby advised to ensure that only complete files into these investigations are forwarded to me in the future,” De Livera’s letter to the Acting IGP concluded. Critics of the CID quickly latched on to the AG’s broadside to cast further skepticism on the credibility of their investigations.
SSP Abeysekera has already lodged a complaint at the Fort Police against Attorney at Law Manoj Gamage, for allegedly threatening him at a press conference recently. Giving testimony before the Parliamentary Select Committee probing the Easter Sunday attacks last month, the CID Director opened up to lawmakers about the threats and intimidation his investigators have faced because of the high stakes for those implicated in emblematic cases. With the chief prosecutor of the state adding his voice to the full-scale assault against the CID, senior officers fear that these detectives have lost their last line of defence.