P. PADMAN SURASENA J

On 21-04-2019, seven incidents of suicide bomb explosions occurred in seven different places of this country. These explosions claimed the lives of 268 people and caused injuries to 586 people. The Victims were those gathered at three churches namely: St. Anthony’s Church, Kochchikade, Colombo; St. Sebastian’s Church, Katuwapitiya in Negombo; Zion Church, Batticaloa, as well as those gathered at four hotels namely: Shangri-La Hotel, Colombo; Kingsbury Hotel, Colombo; Cinnamon Grand Hotel, Colombo; and New Tropical Inn, Dehiwala.

In relation to the above suicide explosions, the Accused-Respondent who held office as the Inspector General of Police, stood indicted before High Court-at-Bar under 855 counts. The charges in these 855 counts could be categorized and tabulated in the following manner:

The High Court-at-Bar on 22-11-2021 had read out charges to the Accused-Respondent and he had pleaded not guilty to each count upon which the High Court-at-Bar had commenced the trial against him.

The Prosecuting Counsel had made the opening address in terms of Section 199 (1) of the Code of Criminal Procedure Act No. 15 of 1979 as amended (hereinafter sometimes referred to as the CCPA). The admissions, Admissions recorded on 22-11-2021 at 10.05 am (pages 15-34), High Court-at-Bar Record of Proceedings, at Volume IV. were then recorded in terms of Section 420 of the CCPA on several matters namely: the fact that the Accused-Respondent had held the office of the IGP during the relevant time period including inter alia the occurrences of the bomb attacks; the contents of the Postmortem reports of the deceased; the contents of the Medico Legal Reports of the Injured; and the contents of the Government Analyst’s Reports relating to the crime scenes.

During the trial in the High Court-at-Bar, the learned Deputy Solicitor General had led the evidence of the following Prosecution Witnesses (PW):

1) Nilantha Jayawardena, Director/State Intelligence Service (SIS) (PW1);

2) C. D. Wickremaratne, IGP (PW 1214);

3) Deshabandu Tennakoon, the then DIG, Western North (PW 35);

4) Shirley Aaron, Coordinator (Inquiries) ,Legal Department, Mobitel Pvt. Ltd (PW 1034);

5) Nimal Senaratne, Chief Inspector, IGP’s Secretariat, Police Headquarters, Colombo (PW 1216); and

6) Chamila Damayanthi, Additional Deputy Registrar of the Colombo High Court.

On 20-01-2022, the Prosecution had informed the High Court-at-Bar that it would close its case. The learned High Court Judges upon the Prosecution closing its case on 20-01-2022, had adjourned the proceedings for 18-02-2022 to consider whether they would call for the defence from the Accused-Respondent. On the next date, i.e., on 18-02-2022, the High Court- at-Bar had pronounced the Order in that regard, and decided not to call for the defence from the Accused-Respondent. The High Court-at-Bar acting under Section 200 (1) of the CCPA, had decided to acquit the Accused-Respondent without calling for his defence.

Being aggrieved by the said decision of the High Court-at-Bar, the Attorney General has appealed to this Court seeking to have the said High Court-at-Bar decision set aside by this Court.

CHARGES IN THE INDICTMENT:

The Attorney General has framed the charges against the Accused-Respondent on the basis that he had abetted the suicide bombers to commit the respective crimes on the respective dates mentioned in several counts in the indictment. The said abetment is alleged to have been committed by an illegal omission on his part, i.e., by his failure to prevent the commission of those respective crimes in his capacity as the Inspector General of Police (IGP), even after he was in receipt of the information more fully set out in the schedule (අ) attached to the indictment. It is on that basis that the Accused-Respondent is alleged to have committed all the offences set out in the several counts in the indictment served on him. Those charges are in respect of the deaths of persons who became victims of the afore