By: Isuru Parakrama
Colombo (LNW): The Court of Appeal yesterday (10) issued notices to the members of the Presidential Commission of Inquiry (PCoI) on Political Victimisation, including its Chairperson, ex Supreme Court Justice Upali Abeyratne, to lay down facts pertaining to a petition filed by Shani Abeysekara, ex Director of the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) alleging the breach of a pledge made before the Court.
This was when the case was taken up before the Appeal Court Bench comprising Chair Justice Nissanka Bandula Karunaratne and Justice A. Marikkar yesterday.
The Bench ordered the Chairperson of the said PCoI established during the previous Good Governance Regime to produce facts pertaining to the petition by Abeysekara on September 11, 2023.
The aggrieved party claimed in his petition that he had received summons from the PCoI to testify in relation to a complaint made by Nissanka Senadhipathi, Chairman of Avant Garde Maritime Company, and he, therefore, filed a writ petition before the Appeal Court against it.
When the petition was taken up, the attorney who represented the members of the PCoI made a pledge before the Court that he would not act against Abeysekara regarding the complaint by Senadhipathi until his petition is heard, the ex CID Director further stated in his petition.
However, the report produced by the PCoI on Political Victimisation containing the recommendations and findings on which the Commission was appointed to investigate includes several recommendations against him, Abeysekara revealed, thereby demanding the Appeal Court that a verdict be given that the members of the PCoI have disobeyed the Court orders and disrespected the Judiciary through their actions.
