Police Commission does U-turn on controversial Kurunegala DIG’s transfer to Trinco

• Transfer decision deferred to study the matter: NPC Secy
• Commission believes transfer could ‘cause more issues’

Despite approval from Police Acting Inspector General C. D. Wickramaratne to transfer Deputy Inspector General (DIG) of Kurunegala Kithsiri Jayalath, who was allegedly involved in Dr. Mohamed Shafi’s controversial arrest, the National Police Commission (NPC) yesterday decided to withhold his transfer to Trincomalee. The NPC had approved 17 transfers of DIGs, including nine new DIGs, who had completed their training, yesterday.

“We got the list of IGP approved transfers of 18 DIGs, including DIG Jayalath’s transfer, last Thursday and we didn’t have time to look into the matter to approve his transfer. Therefore, the NPC has decided to withhold his transfer temporarily,” NPC Secretary Nishantha Weerasinghe told the Daily FT.

He said that the NPC had not approved or cancelled his transfer but only withheld the decision, since the Commission decided that it would “cause further issues”.

He said that the IGP had approved his transfer to Trincomalee considering the request from the Criminal Investigation Department (CID), which was probing into the DIG’s alleged involvement in arresting Dr. Shafi on false charges. Dr. Shafi was remanded over what has since turned out to be a manufactured scam about illegal sterilisation of Sinhalese women at the Kurunegala Teaching Hospital. DIG Jayalath was transferred to facilitate the ongoing investigation. 

“The NPC discussed his transfer and decided to get more details related to his matter before deciding to approve the transfer. Therefore, we have not yet sent our approval regarding his transfer to the Department of Police,” Weerasinghe said.