President’s COI probing Easter Sunday attacks gets additional powers

• New powers vested following request by COI
• Will enable Commission to call for bank details, Inland Revenue records of persons under probe and their family members

President Maithripala Sirisena has conferred additional powers on the Commission of Inquiry (COI) he appointed in September to investigate and inquire into the suicide bomb attacks that took place on Easter Sunday.

The additional powers will enable the Commission to call upon any bank in Sri Lanka to produce any book or document of the bank containing entries relating to the account of any person whose conduct is being inquired into by the Commission or of the spouse or child of that person.

The COI will also have additional powers to write to the Commissioner-General of Inland Revenue asking him/her to furnish all information available relating to the affairs of any person whose conduct is being inquired into by the Commission or of the spouse or child of that person.

President Sirisena conferred the additional powers on the COI upon the request of the Commission, which requested them in order to effectively execute the task assigned to it.

The COI was appointed on 20 September. Its members are Court of Appeal judges Janaka de Silva and Nissanka Bandula Karunaratne, Retired Judges of the Court of Appeal Nihal Sunil Rajapaksa and Bandula Kumara Atapattu and Retired Ministry Secretary W.M.M.R. Adikari.

The additional powers have been conferred under the provisions of the Commission of Inquiry Act No. 16 of 2008 and published in the Gazette.