By: Ovindi Vishmika
July 22, Colombo (LNW): In Sri Lanka’s history of troubled policing, no moment has matched this one.
For the first time ever, a sitting Inspector General of Police (IGP) has been found guilty of gross misconduct and abuse of power by a high-level Committee of Inquiry — a move that has shaken the pillars of the country’s law enforcement and governance structures.
The man at the center of this firestorm? Deshabandu Tennakoon, once considered a politically favored blue-eyed officer, now exposed as the most controversial IGP in the island’s post-independence history. While Tennakoon’s rise through the ranks was politically assisted, his downfall is self-authored.
The Parliament is now preparing to vote on the committee’s recommendation to remove him from office,a historic and humiliating downfall.The report unveils a litany of abuse, negligence, and political manipulation, painting a dark portrait of a police chief whose loyalty was not to justice, but to power.
But what exactly did he do? The list of allegations reads like a crime dossier, implicating the nation’s top cop in everything from torture and election-time collusion to covering up murder and enabling mob violence.
- Standing with Killers: The Bharatha Lakshman Murder
In October 2011, amidst Provincial Council elections, a deadly shootout occurred at Walpola Junction. MP Bharatha Lakshman Premachandra was gunned down in a brutal face-off with rival MP Duminda Silva’s faction.
And who was quietly riding in Silva’s convoy? Superintendent of Police Deshabandu Tennakoon.
Rather than diffusing tensions or stopping the violence, Tennakoon did nothing. When investigations began, his name was scrubbed from accountability, reportedly at the orders of powerful political handlers. Even today, the silence around his role in that murder lingers like a loaded gun.
- Protecting the Powerful: The Poddala Jayantha Case
Journalist Poddala Jayantha was abducted and tortured for criticizing the government. He claimed the assault was ordered by then Defence Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa.
Tennakoon, tasked with recording Jayantha’s statement, refused to write down the allegations against the Defence Secretary. The result? The truth was buried, and the victim fled the country.
Years later, when CID Director Shani Abeysekera began reopening these dark chapters, Tennakoon allegedly retaliated by fabricating charges that landed Abeysekera in jail for 10 months,charges that were later thrown out by the courts.
- Easter Sunday Warnings Ignored
Two days before the devastating Easter Sunday bombings in 2019, intelligence units had flagged Katuwapitiya Church in Negombo as a target. Officers were instructed to tighten security.
Deshabandu Tennakoon, then responsible for the area, ignored the orders and quietly checked into a beach resort in Pasikudah,switching off his phone just as a national tragedy loomed. Over 250 people died in one of the worst terror attacks in the nation’s history.
- Aragalaya Chaos: Ignoring Presidential Orders
During the height of the Aragalaya protests in May 2022, President Gotabaya Rajapaksa gave a clear directive: Do not let pro-government mobs reach Galle Face Green.
Tennakoon, then SDIG of Western Province, did the opposite. He stood down while government thugs stormed protest camps, triggering countrywide riots, three deaths, and hundreds of injuries.
A deliberate failure to act? Or a calculated political move? Either way, he let the fire spread.
- Torture, Confirmed by the Supreme Court
Perhaps the most legally concrete of all allegations: in 2011, a man arrested at Mirihana Police Station was tortured with chili powder, beaten in front of his children, and humiliated.
The case went to the Supreme Court, which found Tennakoon guilty of violating the man’s fundamental rights. He was ordered to pay Rs. 2 million in compensation from his personal funds.
Never before has an IGP carried a torture conviction on his record.
- Rs. 17.85 Million and a Mysterious Instruction
When protestors stormed the President’s House in July 2022, they found bundles of cash worth Rs. 17.85 million left behind.
An STF officer and civilians followed protocol and handed the money over to the Pettah Police OIC. But then came the twist, Tennakoon allegedly ordered the money to be handed to Minister Tiran Alles. The OIC refused.
Why? Who was the money for? To this day, no answers.
- Threatening a Police Investigator
When Senior Superintendent of Police D.S. Wickremesinghe was appointed to investigate police misconduct, he was allegedly threatened by Tennakoon himself over the phone.
SSP Wickremesinghe took the unprecedented step of reporting the threat to court ,a chilling sign of how deeply Tennakoon may have tried to interfere in internal investigations.
- The Weligama Shootout: Police vs. Police
In what looked like a scene from a gangster film gone wrong, a Colombo Crimes Division team opened fire at a hotel in Weligama linked to political disputes. Local police, unaware they were shooting at fellow officers, fired back. One police sergeant died.
The CCD had reportedly gone on this rogue mission on Deshabandu’s orders, tied to a land dispute involving Minister Alles. When an officer called him for help, Tennakoon allegedly warned: “Keep your mouth shut, or get transferred.”
- Bulldozing the Law: The Soul Beach Demolition
In Dehiwala, a beachfront hotel called Soul Beach was destroyed by police, claiming it was built with drug money. But the owners had valid lease documents from the Railways Department.
No court order. No legal notice. No due process.Just bulldozers sent, allegedly, on Tennakoon’s word alone.
An IGP Like No Other For All the Wrong Reasons
Sri Lanka has had 34 Inspectors General of Police. Not one has ever faced a record of misconduct, negligence, and criminality as extensive and public as that of Deshabandu Tennakoon.
From torture chambers to political puppeteering, from cash cover-ups to deadly silence, his reign as IGP has laid bare the systemic rot at the top of the police force.
If Parliament ratifies the committee’s recommendation, Tennakoon will not only lose his uniform,he will go down in history as the first IGP removed by Parliament for criminal abuse of power.
The badge of law is meant to symbolize justice. But in this case, it became a shield for impunity until it shattered under the weight of truth.
