Alleged plot to kill President: CID says it has reliable information

There was “justifiable and reliable information” that Deputy Inspector General Nalaka Silva, now in custody, proposed to assassinate President Maithripala Sirisena, the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) has told the Attorney General and a Magistrate's Court.

The claim is made in a report after the CID had recorded statements from 87 persons in an investigation that is still under way. It, however, does not spell out the details of the assassination plot, except to quote from statements recorded from different people. It was only a week ago that Mersalin Thomas, an Indian national, was released after Police told court that there was no evidence of his involvement.

According to the CID report, the man at the centre of accusations is Namal Kumara, a self-described political activist. He has said that DIG Nalaka Silva had asked him to allegedly use drug lord Makandure Madush (now in custody in Dubai) to assassinate President Sirisena and Gotabaya Rajapaksa, the former Defence Secretary. The CID has said it was still trying to obtain the help of Interpol to determine the relationship between DIG Silva and Madush. Other targets, according to the CID report, include Prasanna Alwis, an Assistant Superintendent of Police. The report claims that DIG Silva had driven Namal Kumara to the residence of ASP Alwis and told him he would “provide the necessary items to knock him off.”

The report quotes extracts from a statement made by President Sirisena. He has expressed the belief that DIG Silva had hatched the assassination plot conscious of constitutional provisions that when the President is not there, he would be succeeded by the Prime Minister. He had met DIG Silva on occasions. Once he had told him of a conspiracy to kill Minister Rishad Bathiuddin and Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarian M. A. Sumanthiran. According to President Sirisena, DIG Silva has told him that he could do a better job if he was made head of intelligence.

The CID report has said that its investigations had revealed that Namal Kumara had met DIG Silva in his office in Colombo. The attack on President Sirisena or Gotabaya Rajapaksa was to be carried out when they were travelling to either Ampara or Batticaloa. The reason for this venue, DIG Silva had allegedly claimed, was to place the blame on a person known as Pushparaj, a onetime Tiger guerrilla political wing cadre. DIG Silva had told Namal Kumara that he was known to Madhush.

Deputy Solicitor General Dilipa Peiris has made submissions to the Fort Magistrate's Court and, accordingly, Magistrate Ranga Dissanayake has directed the CID to submit a summary of the evidence.