Several officials to blame for Easter Sunday attacks – Gammanpila

Pivithuru Hela Urumaya (PHU) leader and former MP Udaya Gammanpila said that legal action should be taken against former Senior DIG Ravi Seneviratne for negligence of duty with respect to the Easter Sunday attacks, as revealed by investigative committee reports on the Easter Sunday attacks.

The reports have also recommended that a criminal case should also be filed against former Director of the Criminal Investigation Department Shani Abeysekara for not performing his duties properly, Gammanpila said.

He said this at a press conference yesterday at his party headquarters to make public the investigative committee reports related to the Easter Sunday attacks.

Gammanpila said that the relevant reports also recommended filing criminal cases against 17 government officials.

In 2019, President Maithripala Sirisena appointed the Presidential Commission led by Supreme Court Judge Janak de Silva regarding the Easter Sunday attacks. The report was handed over to former President Gotabaya Rajapaksa in January 2021.

“Recently, some senior politicians said on television that I am going to publish a part of that report. But, this report was published in 2021. Although the Commission stated that some parts of the report were sensitive to national security, the then government handed them over to Bishop Harold Anthony Perera.

“I am talking about the two reports of the committees appointed by former President Ranil Wickremesinghe, which have not been made public so far.

“Meanwhile, the second report of the committee led by retired Supreme Court Justice S.I. Imam, who investigated the claims made in the Channel 4 documentary that alleged collusion between the Sri Lankan intelligence services and the terror suspects involved in the Easter Sunday attacks, would be released on October 28. This report was handed over to former President Wickremesinghe on June 25, 2024.”

Gammanpila stated that the report of the Committee of Inquiry, chaired by retired High Court Judge A.N.J. De Alwis, appointed to investigate the actions taken by the State Intelligence Service (SIS), Chief of National Intelligence (CNI), and other relevant authorities concerning prior intelligence received about the bomb attacks on April 21, 2019, was released by him yesterday. This report was handed over to the then President on September 14, 2024, a week before the current President took office.

“The scope of this second report is to investigate whether there was a mistake by the police and intelligence agencies regarding the Easter attacks.

“As stated on the forty-seventh page of this report, the Director of State Intelligence Service has informed the Senior Deputy Inspector General of Criminal Investigation Department Ravi Seneviratne in a letter on April 9, 2019, that Tauheed Jamaat terrorists including Mohammad Zaharan, were planning to launch suicide attacks on several places including well-known Catholic churches, as revealed by the foreign intelligence services. Ravi Seneviratne is the current Secretary of the Ministry of Public Security.

“In this letter, the names, national identity card numbers, telephone numbers, addresses, hangouts, associates, places and times of the attackers have been mentioned in detail.

“Ravi Seneviratne filed a fundamental rights petition in the Supreme Court requesting not to arrest him because the Commission report on this letter has made serious allegations against him. I studied that case carefully. When this letter came on April 9, 2019, Ravi Seneviratne was abroad. Ravi Seneviratne later said that he saw this letter on April 16, 2019.

In the case of government officials going abroad, another officer should be appointed to cover his or her work. Therefore, DIG Nagahamulla, who was in charge of CID, had been appointed for that.

“How come this letter was on Ravi Seneviratne’s desk without reaching Nagahamulla for a week? His staff should be questioned about this. It is obvious from their statements that Ravi Seneviratne instructed them to wait until he returns without opening confidential emails.

“Reports that are considered confidential are extremely sensitive and require immediate action. How can the officers who cover the work perform their duties according to such orders?

There was a letter containing all the details on Ravi Seneviratne’s desk for a long time. Seneviratne has read this letter on April 16 and has made a note that the progress of the investigation should be reported by May 1, 2019. But it was handed over to the DIG in charge of CID Nagahamulla on April 19. This letter did not reach Nagahamulla until the bombs exploded on April 21. This letter was sent the day after the bomb was detonated. That was April 22.

“A letter that needs to be acted upon immediately remained with Ravi Senaviratne for 12 days. Instead of keeping an extremely confidential letter on his desk, he should have called the DIG immediately and instructed him to pay close attention to the extremely sensitive matter and take immediate action. But he has given time until May 1, 2019, to investigate this letter.

“If Ravi Seniviratne had acted immediately, he would have been able to arrest all the bombers.”

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