Colombo: Deshabandu Tennakoon, the suspended inspector general of police, surrendered to the court Wednesday after evading arrest for over two weeks in a case related to a shooting incident in 2023.
Tennakoon, who had been on a run since February 28, turned himself in at the magistrate’s court in the southern town of Matara. The court sent him to remand prison for a day.
The police chief had two days ago lost his appeal at the Court of Appeal to prevent his arrest. The Appeal Court refused his plea without a hearing.
Tennakoon, under suspension since July 2024, remained a fugitive and has been hiding since the Magistrate’s court in Matara February 28 ordered his arrest over the December 2023 incident in the southern resort of Weligama.
Tennakoon, as the inspector general, had sent police officers from the Colombo Crime Division (CCD) to the resort hotel in Weligama for a raid in connection with illegal drugs. However, the Weligama police, unaware of the undercover operation, opened fire at the CCD vehicle, killing an officer.
The police sought public support to arrest their chief while deploying six teams to hunt for Tennakoon after the Matara court order.
Tennakoon was suspended in July 2024 from functioning by the Supreme Court, which also ordered a hearing on the legality of his appointment after it received petitions regarding it.
He was appointed as the police chief in November 2023 despite being found guilty of torturing a person in custody by the Supreme Court in a fundamental rights petition.
An acting police chief was appointed in November last year pending the outcome of Tennekoon’s case.
Tuesday night, the police teams which were on Tennekoon’s trail, searched his house in the Colombo suburb of Hokandara.
The police minister Ananda Wijepala told Parliament earlier Wednesday that over 1,200 bottles of foreign liquor and his iPhones with personal weapons had also been seized in that raid.
Tennakoon’s lawyer’s wife lodged a complaint with the local police that the police raid of the house had been conducted without a warrant.
PTI
