By Rathindra Kuruwita

President Maithripala Sirisena used to lie as a habit, former Inspector General of Police (IGP) Pujith Jayasundara yesterday told the Presidential Commission probing Easter Sunday attacks.

Jayasundara made this statement when he was asked by Commissioners why he had failed to inform President Sirisena of the foreign intelligence that the State Intelligence Service (SIS) had received, of a possible terror attack, when he met Sirisena on April 14 and on April 16. Last week Sirisena said that Jayasundara met him on April 14 for the New Year and on 16 at the airport when he left the country.

“The statement the former president made before the Commission that I had boarded the flight on April 16 and greeted him is untrue. I did so when our relations were healthy.

“Why would Sirisena lie about this?” a member of the Commission asked.

The witness said that Sirisena lied as a habit.

“For example Sirisena had told the PCoI that I had visited him for the Sinhala and Hindu New Year in 2019, and stayed there for lunch. That too is a lie. I was there only for about ten minutes on that day. I didn’t have lunch. I only went to greet him as the Head of State in keeping with the Sri Lankan traditions.”

The former IGP also added that Namal Kumara, who alleged, in 2018, that there was a plan to assassinate former President Maithripala Sirisena and current President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, had been paid by Sirisena’s Office.

 “Dr. Samantha Kithalawarachchi, the former Director of the Presidential Task Force on Drug Prevention, which was active at the time, told me that Kumara was paid by the Task Force too.”

 Jayasundara added that Kumara had been given a reward of Rs. 500,000 from the Police Rewards Fund for providing information needed to arrest several suspects involved in riots at Digana.

 Jayasundara also said that given that former Commandant of the Special Task Force (STF) Senior DIG M.R. Latheef had informed on April 2019 that the STF officers who were guarding former President Maithripala Sirisena knew about the intelligence received by the State Intelligence Service (SIS) on April 04, 2019 about a possible terror attack, it was highly likely that Sirisena was aware of this development.

Jayasundara said he had informed the SIS intelligence to SDIG Latheef on April, 09, 2019, and that the latter had submitted two reports, on 21 and 22 April, 2019, about the steps he had taken. Latheef had also informed the STF headquarters in the East as well as heads of STF camps, Jayasundara said.