Negligence by Police Dept assisted Zahran and his team: Fmr. IGP

Negligence made by the Police Department had assisted Zahran Hashim and his team to move around freely without getting arrested, former IGP Pujith Jayasundara yesterday admitted at the PCoI probing Easter Sunday attacks.

Mr. Jayasundara made this statement while responding to a question raised by a Commissioner.

Testifying before the Commission, Mr. Jayasundara said that the State Intelligence Service (SIS) and the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) have to take equal responsibility for not arresting 'Army Mohideen,' a strong member of National Thowheed Jamaat (NTJ), who had received an arrest warrant in 2017.

The Commissioners then questioned the witness regarding the use of 'Army Mohideen' as an informant of the CID, while there was an arrest warrant.

"There was an arrest warrant issued by the Magistrate's Court on this person. The CID first have to operate the arrest warannt and produced him before Courts without using him as an informant," he said.

He said the CID could not use a person who was supposed to be arrested, as an informant, without executing the particular arrest warrant.

When Commissioners questioned the witness regarding why he had failed to execute the arrest warrants on Zahran and his team members, Mr. Jayasundara said that as the IGP, he could not perform every duty at the Police Department.

"The IGP has to be accountable for the duty he was doing and all the Police officers under the IGP have to the responsible for arresting a person,"he said.

Mr. Jayasundara also added that the SIS was out his control and he could not mention any faults regarding intelligence forwarded by them to his office. (Yoshitha Perera)