A letter sent by the Inspector General of Police C.D. Wickramaratne to the Secretary of the Ministry of Public Security with a copy to the National Police Commission is currently circulating in some media and social media.
In the same letter, along with the initial investigation report conducted by the Police Special Investigation Unit regarding the amount of rupees one crore seventy eight lakh fifty thousand rupees found there when the militants took over the President’s House at Colombo Fort during the last People’s protest, the charge sheets against a group of officers including Senior Deputy Inspector General of Police Deshbandu Tennakoon.
There are two dramatic issues related to this circulating article.
The first of which is that this letter is circulating in the media and social media, but this has not yet been received by the Secretary of the Ministry of Public Security to whom it refers. Accordingly, it is clear that the Inspector General of Police CD Wickramaratne has forwarded this to the media even before going to the duty reference due to some urgency. This is not another emergency, it is the news from the day before yesterday (16) that he will not get the extension of service he was hoping for and that Senior DIG Deshbandu Tennakoon will be appointed to the position of IGP.
LNW reported in an earlier news that C.D. Wickramaratne, hoping for an extension of service for another year, sent requests after requests to the political authorities asking them to allow him to serve as the Inspector General of Police next year as all the three seniors below him have been charged with various charges. But that hope of Wickramaratne has been completely broken by yesterday (17).
We have already reported that no approval has been received for giving him a service extension and President Ranil Wickramasinghe has also approved the appointment of Deshabandu Thennakone as the Inspector General of Police.
Under such a situation, Inspector General of Police CD Wickramaratne has requested an extension to stay for one more month in the office of the Inspector General of Police, which he is currently using even after his retirement date. It is also stated that he has requested to use a jeep and a car belonging to the police department which he is currently using for another 6 months. It was also reported that the Inspector General of Police had released his letter to the media when the Ministry of Public Security had given approval to those requests considering his security issues.
C.D. Wickramaratne became the Acting Inspector General of Police earlier because the then Inspector General of Police Pujith Jayasundara went on compulsory leave after the Easter attack. After the end of the tenure of Pujith Jayasundara, Wickramaratne assumed the position of Inspector General of Police without the acting part from November 27, 2020. In fact, he has also received a bonus period for the post of Inspector General of Police.
But when he turned 60, instead of giving the position to the next deserving person and leaving in a dignified way, he requested the authorities to allow him to spend the next year as the Inspector General of Police, saying that there were various investigations against all the three senior officers after him. The media had also reported that he went after various bosses including former authorities to make this request.
When all that failed, IGP Wickramaratne filed a charge sheet against the officer recommended for the position of IGP after him and sent it to the ministry secretary on the day his retirement and related privileges were approved. Also sending photos of the letter to a group of media friends before sending it to the Ministry Secretary.
The second story here is that if an investigation is required against Deshbandu Tennakoon, he replied to a letter received on February 09 on March 17, when his retirement was approved yesterday. It has also been sent to the media in advance.
The post of Inspector General of Police is not an easy pass. Only 35 people have received it so far. A person must have the necessary discipline to hold such a position as well as to leave it. But even after CD Wickramaratne’s age, it seems that there is an insatiable desire to hold this position.
