COLOMBO (AFP) – A Sri Lankan court refused yesterday to quash an arrest warrant for the island nation’s fugitive police chief who is wanted over an officer’s death in a botched raid.
Inspector-General Deshabandu Tennakoon has been in hiding since the arrest warrant was issued in February and police have made a public appeal to help find him.
He stands accused of authorising an ill-fated drug bust in 2023, allegedly against internal regulations, that sparked a gun battle between competing police units.
Despite Tennakoon being in hiding, he still managed to file a writ urging the arrest warrant be cancelled, which the Court of Appeal refused to grant in yesterday’s ruling.
Police said they had deployed six special units to track down Tennakoon but were only able to trace his wife and son, who claimed they were unaware of his whereabouts.
Failure to locate the police chief has “undermined public confidence in the police force”, spokesman Buddhika Manatunga told reporters.
A foreign travel ban has been imposed on Tennakoon in case he tries to flee the island.
The state prosecutor told another court hearing last week that evidence had emerged of Tennakoon operating a paramilitary hit squad to carry out illegal activities.
A magistrate ordered Tennakoon’s arrest in February following allegations he authorised an illegal raid in the southern coastal resort town of Weligama.
Local police, unaware of the undercover operation, confronted the unit, sparking a gun battle in which one officer was killed and another critically wounded. No drugs were found.
Tennakoon was appointed police chief in November 2023, but the move was challenged in the Supreme Court, which suspended him last July pending the outcome of a separate court case.
