President’s Counsel Ali Sabry told the Court of Appeal that two respondents in a petition filed by Colonel Kelum S. Maddumage—Public Security Ministry Secretary (retired SDIG) Ravi Seneviratne and former CID Director Shani Abeysekara—had previously filed fundamental rights petitions in the Supreme Court to prevent their own arrests in connection with the 2019 Easter Sunday terror attacks.
Appearing for Col. Maddumage, a former Directorate of Military Intelligence (DMI) officer and the current Commanding Officer of the Diyatalawa Military Academy, Sabry noted that the Attorney General had given an undertaking to the Supreme Court on 20 October 2024 that Seneviratne and Abeysekara would not be arrested.
The Court of Appeal on Tuesday (21) extended until 11 November the interim injunction preventing Col. Maddumage’s arrest. The order was issued by a two-judge bench comprising Court of Appeal President Justice Rohan Abeysooriya and Justice Priyantha Fernando, after considering the writ petition filed by the officer.
Deputy Solicitor General Suharshi Herath, appearing for the respondents, requested the bench to lift the ex parte injunction, but Sabry maintained that there was no evidence to justify an arrest. He also questioned the propriety of individuals previously under investigation for lapses leading up to the Easter attacks now supervising ongoing probes.
Calling the inquiry “a political game,” Sabry argued that the DMI had provided intelligence 11 days before the bombings warning of an imminent attack, corroborated by Indian intelligence with detailed information on suspects and locations. He alleged that police inefficiency enabled the tragedy.
Sabry further said the current investigation was based on an unverified statement made to Channel 4 by Azad Maulana, who has since fled Sri Lanka and sought asylum in Switzerland. He pointed out that a commission led by Supreme Court Justice Imam had unanimously found Maulana’s allegations to be baseless.
When asked by the court whether there was any intention to arrest the petitioner, the Deputy Solicitor General said that decision rested with investigators. She informed the court that the CID had submitted a 68-page “B report” to the Fort Magistrate’s Court on 22 July, containing detailed evidence regarding the petitioner.
According to the CID, Col. Maddumage is being probed over allegations that, in December 2018, false information was provided to mislead investigators into believing that the LTTE was responsible for the killing of two police officers in Vavunathivu. Two former LTTE members were subsequently arrested, but later investigations found that the murders had been committed by Zahran Hashim’s group.
Sabry countered that the police, not his client, were responsible for those arrests and had obtained detention orders through proper channels. He reiterated that politically motivated inquiries would only obstruct the truth and said his client was being made a scapegoat.
He also noted that the DMI’s Batticaloa unit had received confirmation on 9 April 2019 that Zahran’s group was behind the Vavunathivu killings and formally informed the CID on 12 April 2019—just days before the Easter Sunday attacks.
