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Letter to CID: AG instructs Police Chief to probe leak
View(s):By Ranjith Padmasiri
Attorney General Parinda Ranasinghe has instructed Acting Inspector General Priyantha Weerasooriya to investigate how the letter he sent to the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) was leaked before it was submitted to court.
The letter in question ordered the CID to suspend implementing his earlier instructions to discharge three suspects arrested on charges of abducting slain Sunday Leader Editor Lasantha Wickrematunge’s driver and destroying evidence.
The probe has been ordered due to suspicions that the letter had been leaked with the aim of embarrassing the AG’s Department.
The AG’s instructions have already been conveyed to the Acting IGP over the phone and are to be officially conveyed via letter tomorrow, the Sunday Times learns.
On January 27, the AG recommended that the CID discharge the three suspects, who were appearing at the Mount Lavinia Magistrate’s Court. The recommendation created a controversy, resulting in Attorney General Ranasinghe being summoned to a meeting with President Anura Kumara Dissanayake. At this meeting, the AG maintained his stance that there was not enough evidence to proceed with legal action against the three suspects. The AG, though, said that he could refile charges against the suspects if new evidence were to emerge.
Last Monday, the CID had submitted three folders containing new facts related to the case to the AG’s Department.
On Tuesday, the CID sent a letter requesting the AG to give more time for it to act on his instructions to discharge the suspects arrested in connection with the complaint made by Mr. Wickrematunge’s driver, Karunaratne Dias.
While the CID was bound to act on the AG’s instructions within 14 days, it had written to the AG asking for more time to act due to the controversy surrounding the matter. In response to this request, a letter with instructions to suspend discharging the three suspects was issued bearing the signature of Senior Additional Solicitor General Rohantha Abeysuriya. It was this letter, personally handed over to two CID officers, which later ended up being leaked, AG’s Department sources said.
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