Former Royal College athletic captain and Public Schools meet record holder, Senior DIG Roshan Fernando has been appointed Senior DIG Sabaragamuwa and Uva Provinces from September 20, 2020 by the National Police Commission.
He is the longest serving officer among all the Senior DIGs in service and has completed more than 38 years as a Field Officer with the Sri Lanka Police. He has been awarded seven IG’s Commendations and two Special Increments for his unblemished career.
Doctorate
Recently, Roshan Fernando was also awarded the Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) Honouris Causa in Law and Criminology by the British American University of Florida, USA at the Special Graduation and Award of Honorary Doctoral Degrees at the BMICH, Colombo.
Senior DIG Fernando was a versatile sportsman, accounting for many athletic records during his school career at Royal College, Colombo 7.
Besides his record breaking career in track and field, Fernando has represented Royal in four other sports - cricket, rugby, volleyball and boxing.
As the captain of Royal’s champion athletic team in 1979, he guided the Reid Avenue school to emerge champions in all three major schools championships held that year - the Junior John Tarbet meet, Senior Tarbet meet and the Relay Carnival. In winning the Senior John Tarbet Championship under his dynamic leadership, Royal set a new record of 249 points to win the title with a convincing margin.
Besides Royal colours in athletics, Fernando was awarded the Public Schools colours in athletics for his outstanding feats which included anchoring Royal to two Public Schools records in the 4 x 100m Relay and Medley Relay in the Under-19 age group. He ended his brilliant school career at Royal as a Senior College Prefect and the Head Prefect of the Royal College Hostel, at which he was better known as ‘ERL’ after his initials. At the 1980 annual prize-giving of Royal, he was awarded the Best All Round Hosteller Award.
Athletic records
Senior DIG Fernando had his primary education at St. Mary’s College, Negombo before he joined Royal. College
His Under 11 Long Jump record in athletics for the Marians still remain unbroken for 49 years. As an Under 16 athlete at Royal, he had accounted for five records, including the Long Jump which still remains intact after 44 years.
After an illustrious school career as an outstanding sportsman, young Fernando joined the Sri Lanka Police in April 1982 as a sub inspector. Since then, he has served the Police Department in various ranks in all parts of the country.
A pioneer member of elite Special Task Force (STF) in 1984, Senior DIG Fernando has made a notable contribution during the nation’s battle against terrorism.
Promotions
He was promoted as ASP in 1994. During his 38-year unblemished and exemplary career in the Police, Senior DIG Fernando has also served as the Commandant of the Police Marine Division and as the Director of the Thambuththegama and Pahalagama Police Training Schools.
During three decades of terrorism, he had served mostly in operational areas and was in charge of the Jaffna Division at the time the country was liberated in 2009.
For his fearless service extended during the last phase of the battle against terrorism, Fernando was awarded the Northern Humanitarian Operations Medal. He was also awarded the ‘Singapore Excellency Award’ in 2007.
He was promoted to the rank of SSP in 2005, DIG in 2013 and Senior DIG in 2017.
He had executed his duties in Chilaw, Puttalam, Gampola, Nugegoda and Jaffna Divisions as SSP and Badulla, Moneragala, Kurunegala and Special Protection Range as DIG and Northern, Southern, Sabaragamuwa and Central Provinces as Senior DIG.
During the Covid-19 outbreak, he was appointed on a special assignment on the Prevention of the Spread of Covid-19 at Police Headquarters and was responsible for curbing the spread of the new pandemic island-wide.
He is one of the highly trained officers in the Sri Lanka Police with special training in Israel, Japan, Singapore, Nepal and Iran on anti-terrorist combatting, community policing and cyber crimes.