MONETABRIEF —Strictures issued against Inspector-General of Police Priyantha Weerasooriya by Gampaha Magistrate Bandula Gunaratne have underscored the sharp practices allegedly used by local law-enforcement authorities to frame suspects — a tactic that is widely known but rarely addressed by the criminal justice system.
Gampaha Magistrate Bandula Gunaratne may have spoken for the silent majority when he pulled up the Inspector-General of Police over his alleged failure to issue fresh instructions to his subordinates to clean up their act, particularly in drug-related cases.
At the root of the magistrate’s controversial remarks was the Gampaha Anti-Narcotics Unit’s prosecution of the same suspect twice on the same day for the same offence, apparently in an attempt to inflate the number of drug-related prosecutions.
The magistrate had ordered three police officers of the Anti-Narcotics Unit and the Police Department to pay Rs. 200,000 in compensation to a suspect who had been wrongfully charged.
He had also ordered the IGP to issue a circular informing all officers under his command that proceedings should not be instituted without justification against innocent members of the public.
Alleging that Weerasooriya had failed to comply with the order, the magistrate told the court on Wednesday that he was reporting the police chief to the Court of Appeal for contempt proceedings.
The Officer-in-Charge of the Anti-Narcotics Unit had instituted proceedings against Chamara Chathuranga Marasinghe on a charge of possessing 130 milligrams of “ice” and 500 milligrams of heroin on 6 May 2026. He pleaded guilty and was fined. He was then charged under another case number on the same day for the same offence.
After the magistrate pointed out that there were two prosecutions, the police sought to withdraw the second case, but the matter was escalated. The magistrate took exception to the IGP’s failure to issue clear instructions to his officers on the handling of prosecutions.
Sri Lanka’s police force has long been accused of introducing small quantities of narcotics, weapons or explosives in order to frame suspects and have them prosecuted and, in some cases, wrongfully convicted.
The demand for an independent police commission to exercise disciplinary authority over the 85,000-strong police force was fuelled in part by the illegal acts of corrupt police officers.
Official sources said the latest strictures against the IGP had been discussed by the independent National Police Commission (NPC), which felt that the magistrate may have overstepped his authority.
While there has been justifiable criticism of the police, questions have also been raised as to whether the magistrate had the power to report the IGP for contempt.
“The NPC had several issues with IGP Weerasooriya because he had ignored some orders of the Commission,” a source close to the outgoing NPC said. “But in this case, the NPC has sided with him.”