Ex-CID Director Shani answers PCoI questions from hospital bed

… says police grilled wrong suspect over killing of two cops at Vavunativu

By Rathindra Kuruwita

Former Director of the CID Shani Abeysekera yesterday told the PCoI investigating the Easter Sunday bombings that they had realised that the Islamic terrorists were responsible for the killing of two policemen in Vavunativu only after the Easter Sunday attacks.

Abeysekera, who is currently receiving treatment at Ward 42 of the National Hospital, Colombo, testified via Skype. He had earlier contracted COVID-19.

When Abeysekera began testifying, Attorney-at-Law, Upul Kumarapperuma, appearing for the witness told the Commission that it was doubtful whether his client had adequate time to refer to documents necessary to answer the questions.  He also pointed out that Abeysekera was not currently in active service.

Abeysekera told the PCoI that he had received the relevant documents only at around 12 noon yesterday.  Therefore, he said, he did not have enough time to study them.

Kumarapperuma then requested the Commission to obtain Abeysekera’s evidence laster.  However, the Commissioners stated the term of the PCoI ended on 31 January and it was therefore impossible to postpone the evidence to another date. The commissioners informed Abeysekera to answer questions to the best of his ability and to refer to the documents when necessary.

The commission first asked the witness about the investigations he had carried out. The incidents included the suicide bomb attack on the then President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga in 1999, the murder of Yvonne Jonsson at the Royal Park apartment complex in 2005, the murder of ten people in Udathalawinna, and the murder of six people in a car at Delkanda Junction, the murder of Bharatha Lakshman Premachandra, the incident where 27 inmates were killed at Welikada Prison, the shooting of three persons at Rathupaswala and the abduction of Journalist Prageeth Ekneligoda.

Abeysekera said that he had been appointed as the Director of the CID in 2017.

When Commissioners asked him about the murder of two Police officers in the Vavunathivu area on 30 November, 2018, Abeysekara said that the CID had taken over the investigation on the instructions of the then IGP Pujith Jayasundara. A former LTTE cadre had been questioned on detention orders in that regard, he said.

However, further investigations had revealed that the suspect was not involved in the incident. After 21 April, 2019, it had been revealed that the killing was carried out by a group on the instructions of National Thowheed Jamaat leader Zahran Hashim, Abeysekera said.