It is in the backdrop of a shooting incident resulting in the killing of a notorious underworld gangster who has been identified as Ganemulla Sanjeewa within the Colombo Court house a few days ago and the Vavuniya High Court sentencing former Senior Deputy Inspector General of Police Lalith Jayasinghe to four years of rigorous imprisonment on February 20 has highlighted that the law and order in Sri Lanka is in terrible mess. Vavuniya High Court sentencing the former senior Police officer to four years of imprisonment for allowing a prime suspect called Swiss Kumar who was wanted in connection with the high profile murder of school girl Vindya Sivaloganathan has pointed out, that the prosecution has proved that the senior Police officer has committed the blunder beyond reasonable doubt.

School girl Vindya Sivaloganathan was murdered in 2015. The case was came before a Trial at Bar bench comprising three High Court Judges and the suspects including Swiss Kumar was sentenced to death sentences a few years ago. However the Police investigation had revealed that the prime suspect in the Vindya case Swiss Kumar tried to escape from the case against him by bribing Senior DIG Lalith Jayasinghe who was at the time of the murder functioned as DIG Northern Province. The school girl S. Vidya in Punguduthivu was gang raped and murdered in 2015. High Judge M.M. Mihar also imposed a fine of Rs. 50,000 on Jayasinghe. Failure to pay the fine will result in an additional six months of imprisonment.

Sivaloganathan Vidya, an 18-year-old schoolgirl from Punkudutivu,Jaffna was abducted, gang-raped and murdered in Jaffna on May 13, 2015, while returning home from school. Residents arrested the main suspect, ‘Swiss Kumar,’ and handed him over to the police. Deputy Inspector General of Police Jayasinghe, who was arrested on July 15, 2017, by the Criminal Investigation Department, was found guilty of aiding the suspect’s escape while in custody. In addition, the judge ordered the issuing of open warrants on Sri Gajan, a former Sub-Inspector of the Crime Investigation Division at the Kayts Police Station which had carried out the investigation. The investigators had found that Sub Inspector Sri Gajan who was also an accused in the case had worked in connivance with DIG Lalith Jayasinghe to allow Swiss Kumar to escape from the Vidya murder case.

The Vavuniya High Court Judge M.M. Mihar’s judgment finding Senior DIG lalith Jayasinghe guilty of allowing Vidya muder prime suspect to escape has very clearly highlighted that Sri Lanka’s law and order is in disorder. In the meantime Colombo Magistrate Court has found that the murderer in the Colombo Magistrate’s Court a few days ago was a former commando in the Sri Lanka Army’s Commando unit. The extensive investigation carried out on him has also found that he was even involved in various murders and robberies in the past.

Police Criminal Investigation Department has even arrested a Police constable attached to the Negombo Police station in connection with the Colombo Magistrate’s
court shooting incident. Further investigation into the shooting incident has revealed that it was a contract killing and 1.5 million Sri Lankan rupees offered to the killers. The main reason behind the Court room shooting incident was a rivalry behind underworld and drug pedaling activities.

Therefore those who are responsible for maintaining law and order are found to be the main culprits in ridiculing the law of the land. In the meantime Prison officials in important prisons in the Island have also found to be soliciting bribes from the families of prison inmates to grant them with special care inside the prisons. Police personnel from all ranks taking bribes remain a thorny issue in the country. The Bribery and Corruption Commission of Sri Lanka has taken action against several high ranking Police officials for soliciting bribes.

However the biggest threat now prevails in the country is that the law enforcement officials and the armed forces personnel having their connections with the underworld gangsters and the drug peddlers in the country. So the shooting incident at the Colombo Magistrate’s court in which a former army commando and a police constable involved along with the sentencing of former Senior DIG Lalith Jayasinghe for allowing the prime suspects in the Vidya murder in Punkuduthivu, Jaffna have clearly highlighted that the law and order machinery in Sri Lanka is in disorder.