IGP says President offered him ambassador post to resign over Easter Sunday attacks

Inspector General of Police Pujith Jayasundara today (6) told the Parliamentary Select Committee (PSC) probing the Easter Sunday terrorist attacks that President Maithripala Sirisena offered him an ambassadorial post to take responsibility for the terror attacks and resign.

By Sandun Jayawardana 

Inspector General of Police Pujith Jayasundara today (6) told the Parliamentary Select Committee (PSC) probing the Easter Sunday terrorist attacks that President Maithripala Sirisena offered him an ambassadorial post to take responsibility for the terror attacks and resign.

Giving evidence before the PSC, the IGP, who has been sent on compulsory leave by the President, further claimed that when he met the President for a private meeting on the evening of April 23, he also promised to have him exonerated from responsibility through the Presidential Committee appointed to look into the Easter Sunday attacks if he were to resign.

He claimed that the President told him that should he choose not to resign, he would be found guilty by the Presidential Committee and would have to leave the Police without even his pension.

The now suspended IGP said he did not resign as he had given more than 37 years of service to the police, was not “a crook” and had taken all measures possible given the information provided to him in the days leading up to the April 21 attacks.

The IGP claimed that if he had resigned, it would mean that the police alone would be held responsible for what happened. This is unfair, he insisted, arguing that there should be collective responsibility for the “system failure” that led to the disaster.