A Critical Analysis of Political Influence and the Future of Sri Lanka Police

Can We Rely on the Police?

- NIROSHAN PATHBERIYA

The Sri Lanka Police is once again under scrutiny with former IGP Deshabandu Tennakoon surrendering to the Matara Magistrate's Court on Wedesday after nearly 20 days in hiding. His surrender comes after the Court of Appeal rejected his petition seeking a writ to prevent his arrest.

The Matara Magistrate had previously ordered his immediate arrest over a 2023 shooting incident in Weligama, ruling that the deployment of Colombo Crime Division (CCD) officers in this matter was unauthorized and that Tennakoon, along with eight other officers, conspired to commit murder. The sight of a former IGP evading arrest for weeks before finally turning himself in underscores the deep crisis within the police force.

As this incident unravels, numerous other cases come to light, exposing police misconduct at all levels. Former Senior DIG Lalith Jayasinghe, who was sentenced to five years' imprisonment in 2023 for intimidating the Kahawatte OIC to refrain from arresting MP Premalal Jayasekera over a 2015 shooting incident, was convicted for the second time in 2025 and sentenced to four years of rigorous imprisonment for sheltering a key suspect in the rape and murder of schoolgirl Sivalokananthan Vidya in Jaffna.

A police constable is implicated in the Middeniya shooting, and a Negombo Police Crime Branch officer is arrested in connection with the assassination of Ganemulla Sanjeewa at the Colombo Magistrate's Court. The public is left questioning: Is the police force upholding law and order, or must we now defend ourselves from the police as well?