Sri Lanka sacks high-ranking police officer over Easter Sunday bombings

A Deputy Inspector General of police in Sri Lanka has been sacked from the service following a disciplinary inquiry associated to the 2019 Easter Sunday terror assaults.

Nilantha Jayawardena, who beforehand served as the top of the State Intelligence Service (SIS), was positioned on obligatory go away by the National Police Commission (NPC) in July 2024, pending an inner investigation.

Following the conclusion of the inquiry, the NPC determined to dismiss Jayawardena from service.

“It was decided at the meeting of the police commission held on July 17 to order the immediate dismissal from police service of the senior deputy inspector general of police, Nilantha Jayawardena,” the NCP mentioned in an announcement.

About 270 individuals, together with 11 Indians, had been killed as suicide bombers belonging to the native Islamist extremist group National Thawheed Jamaat, linked to ISIS, carried out a sequence of blasts that tore by means of three church buildings and as many luxurious inns in Sri Lanka on Easter Sunday in 2019.

On March 21, 2024, the police fee determined to conduct a disciplinary inquiry towards Jayawardena for his negligence of obligation, which led to the Easter Sunday assault.

The report of the disciplinary investigation was obtained by the police fee two weeks in the past. The fee dominated that Jayawardena was responsible of all of the counts within the chargesheet served on him.

Jayawardena turns into probably the most senior police officer to be discovered responsible of dereliction of obligation.

He was ordered to pay a 75 million rupee tremendous as compensation to the victims.

The Supreme Court in 2023 dominated that former President Maithripala Sirisena, former Defence Secretary Hemasiri Fernando, former National Intelligence Chief Sisira Mendis and former SIS Chief Jayawardena had violated the Fundamental Rights of the petitioners by failing to behave on prior intelligence that would have prevented the assaults.

The then President Sirisena was ordered to pay 100 million to the kinfolk of the victims.

The assault turned a political problem within the nation, with the then rulers, the Rajapaksa household, being accused of utilizing the assault to regain energy.

The Catholic church, unimpressed by the police investigations, referred to as for worldwide investigations to deliver justice to the households of victims.