Former Inspector General of Police (IGP) Pujith Senadhi Bandara Jayasundara, once the country’s highest-ranking police officer, was on Friday sentenced to death by a majority decision of a three-judge bench of the Colombo Permanent High Court Trial-at-Bar after being found guilty over his failure to act on intelligence warnings ahead of the 2019 Easter Sunday terrorist attacks.
Born on March 15, 1960, in Kurunegala, Jayasundara studied at Ibbagamuwa Central School and Dharmaraja College, Kandy, before graduating with a Bachelor of Commerce degree from the University of Sri Jayewardenepura.
He joined the Sri Lanka Police in 1985 as a Probationary Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) and rose through the ranks over a 35-year career. In April 2016, he was appointed the 34th Inspector General of Police by the Constitutional Council under the government of President Maithripala Sirisena.
Jayasundara served as police chief during one of the darkest periods in Sri Lanka’s history—the Easter Sunday terrorist bombings on April 21, 2019, which killed more than 260 people and injured hundreds. Investigations later focused on whether senior officials had failed to act despite receiving advance intelligence warnings of the attacks.
Days after the attacks, President Sirisena ordered Jayasundara to resign. When he refused, he was placed on compulsory leave in April 2019 and replaced by Acting IGP C. D. Wickramaratne. Jayasundara maintained that intelligence-sharing failures between security agencies contributed to the tragedy.
He was later arrested along with former Defence Secretary Hemasiri Fernando and prosecuted over the alleged failure to prevent the attacks. Although the two were acquitted by the Trial-at-Bar in 2022 without being called to present their defence, the Attorney General appealed the decision. The Supreme Court subsequently ruled that the acquittal was legally flawed and ordered the trial to continue.
On July 31, 2026, the Colombo Permanent High Court Trial-at-Bar, by a majority decision, found Jayasundara guilty on 854 of the 855 charges filed against him and sentenced him to death for criminal negligence, dereliction of duty and aiding and abetting deaths through his failure to act on intelligence warnings before the Easter Sunday attacks. One judge dissented, finding that the prosecution had not proved the case beyond a reasonable doubt. (Newswire)
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