TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Sri Lanka's police are searching for their leader on Sunday after a court order for his arrest was issued. As reported by Arab News, Sri Lanka's Police Chief Inspector General of Police Deshabandu Tennakoon is being pursued for the murder of a police officer in a failed drug raid, a senior official said.
Tennakoon has been missing since a judge in the southern part of the island ordered his arrest on Friday, following allegations that he ordered a drug raid on December 31, 2023.
"We went to his house to execute the arrest warrant but he went into hiding, leaving his guards," said a senior officer.
He said the court had also imposed a travel ban on the 53-year-old to stop him from leaving the island.
Tennakoon ordered a police unit from Colombo to search a hotel in Weligama, a resort town about 150 kilometers south of the capital, for illegal drugs.
Local police, unaware of the undercover operation, intercepted the unit from the capital, leading to a shootout that resulted in one officer killed and another seriously injured. No drugs were found in the hotel.
Tennakoon was controversially appointed as the police chief in November 2023 but his appointment was contested in the Supreme Court. The Sri Lankan SC then suspended him in July pending the outcome of the trial.
However, he continued to hold the top police position in Sri Lanka even though the highest court found in a separate case that he had tortured a suspect.
The court ordered Tennakoon to pay half a million rupees to the victim, but the Sri Lankan government at the time ignored the court's order to take disciplinary action against him.
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