Top cops say they are being kicked around like footballs

Handpicked Police Narcotics Bureau (PNB) Chief moved out to look after dogs in Kandy

With the 20th Amendment pending approval in Parliament, the “independent” Police Commission has come into much focus.

Just last week, former Inspector General Pujith Jay a sun dara told the Commission of Inquiry probing the Easter Sunday incidents of 2019, that ex- President Maithripala Sirisena transferred officers frequently through the Commission.

As reported earlier, carrying out the instructions was an official who once wielded power at the Defence Ministry when Gotabaya Rajapaksa was the Defence Secretary. It turned out that the minister in charge of Police was also from the area that he came from. The matter is under probe.

Now comes the news about a transfer that has raised many an e ye b r ow. Sujith Wedamulla, Director of the Police Narcotics Bureau (PNB), who was brought there at the height of the campaign against drug lords, has been moved out. He has been placed in charge of the Police Kennels Division in Kandy after serving just two and a half months in the post.

Earlier, he was Senior Superintendent of Police in charge of the Anuradhapura division. After an altercation with a senior politician in the area, Police Commission sources said he was moved out in a supernumerary capacity as Personal Assistant to the DIG of Badulla division. He served there for four months before being handpicked by Defence Secretary Kamal Gunaratne to head the Narcotics Bureau.

The people complain to Police about many of their law and order problems. Some top cops complain they had nowhere to go and were now being kicked around like footballs. The standard answer in such situations is that the transfer is for “operational or service requirements.”