At the request of the IGP, the Police Commission removed Senior DIG Lalith Pathinayake from the post of Senior DIG in charge of administration. Speaking at the event, the party leader, lawyer Udaya Gammanpila, expressed his views as follows.
”At the request of the IGP, the Police Commission has removed Senior DIG Lalith Pathinayake from the post of Senior DIG in charge of administration. The allegation made against him is that he provided highly confidential internal information of the police to outside parties. This is indeed a very dangerous precedent. If this is not stopped now, it will definitely not be possible to find corruption in Sri Lanka in the future.
The IGP was accused of awarding the tender to a supplier who had submitted a high price that did not meet the conditions specified in the specification when purchasing police vests. Suppliers who submitted low prices but failed to meet certain conditions were not given the opportunity to make up for the shortcomings and supply, and instead were told to fix their own shortcomings and supply vests to someone with a higher price. But this supplier supplied 175,000 vests without fixing the shortcomings. When DIG Priyantha Chandrasiri refused to accept them, the IGP scolded him and told him to accept them.
This is what Senior DIG Lalith Pathinayake told journalist Bimal Ruhunuge. Mr. Pathinayake is not saying this to smear the IGP on social media. He is not saying this to publish it in the media. He is saying this to complain to the Bribery Commission. So what is the wrong with being punished for it? There is nothing wrong with it.
The Bribery Commission is putting up posters and holding seminars all over the country and telling the people that it is the duty of citizens to inform the Bribery Commission about corruption in a state institution. What Mr. Pathinayake has done is to fulfill that civic duty. If he goes and gets punished for fulfilling that duty, no one will take action to expose corruption in the country.
Pathinayake has fulfilled the duty of a whistleblower. When corruption occurs, he complains to the Bribery Commission. There are provisions in the Anti-Corruption Act to protect such people. There are provisions in the Crime Victims and Witnesses Protection Act. In that case, the law should be enforced, not against Mr. Pathinayake.
Against the people who exposed Mr. Pathinayake and put him in danger by releasing the audio recording of the telephone conversation between the journalist and the Deputy Inspector General of Police. We are eagerly waiting for the Bribery Commission to come forward to protect Mr. Pathinayake, as well as the Victims and Witnesses Protection Authority.”