Why I Recommended Pujith Jayasundara as Inspector General of Police — A Personal Account

By Roger Srivasan

1 August 2026

Written in the immediate aftermath of a landmark Supreme Court judgment that will surely be remembered as a defining moment in the 160-year history of the Sri Lanka Police.

History has an uncanny habit of judging decisions with the benefit of hindsight. Yet those entrusted with making them can act only upon the evidence available at the time. My recommendation of Pujith Jayasundara to Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe for appointment as Inspector General of Police was one such decision. It was neither an act of political expediency nor a gesture of personal loyalty. It was a judgement formed from direct observation during one of the most consequential periods in Sri Lanka’s recent political history.

This is neither an attempt to rewrite history nor to influence its verdict. It is simply my account of why, based upon the evidence before me at the time, I recommended Pujith Jayasundara to become Inspector General of Police.

My association with Pujith Jayasundara long pre-dated his appointment as Inspector General of Police. We enjoyed a longstanding friendship founded upon mutual respect, but friendship alone has never been the measure by which I judge a person’s suitability for high office. Friendship afforded me the opportunity to observe his character; professional merit determined my judgement.

At the time, I was serving as President of the United National Party (UNP) UK Branch, a distinction I remain proud to have held as the only Tamil to occupy that position. The Presidential Election of 8 January 2015 represented a defining moment in Sri Lanka’s democratic journey. Throughout polling day I remained in continual communication with Sirikotha, the Party’s headquarters and operational nerve centre.

Information reached me throughout the day concerning possible attempts to intimidate voters or disrupt polling in the Northern Province. Whenever such information reached me, I immediately relayed it to Senior Deputy Inspector General of Police Pujith Jayasundara, who exercised operational command in the Province.

His response was consistently swift and decisive. Police personnel were deployed without delay to reported flashpoints, potential disturbances were addressed promptly, and the electoral process proceeded in an atmosphere of order. The Northern electorate participated in substantial numbers, exercising its democratic franchise without the level of disruption many had feared.

Those events enabled me to assess Pujith Jayasundara’s professional qualities at first hand. I observed an officer who remained composed under pressure, acted decisively upon intelligence, and demonstrated an unwavering commitment to maintaining public order. My assessment was based not upon political hearsay or reputation, but upon what I personally witnessed during a defining national election.

It was for those reasons that I personally recommended Pujith Jayasundara to Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe for appointment as Inspector General of Police. My recommendation rested upon demonstrated leadership, operational competence and integrity under pressure. I believed that those qualities were indispensable in the nation’s most senior police officer.

History, however, has a way of testing both institutions and individuals in ways few could have anticipated. The Easter Sunday terrorist attacks of 2019 plunged Sri Lanka into one of the darkest chapters in its modern history. Public confidence was shaken, searching questions were asked about intelligence, preparedness and accountability, and the office of Inspector General of Police came under intense scrutiny.

Following those tragic events, I remained in contact with Pujith Jayasundara. During our conversations he shared with me his own account of the pressures he believed he had faced in the aftermath of the attacks. He told me that he had been urged to accept public responsibility for the failures and that, according to his account, the prospect of an ambassadorial appointment had been raised if he agreed to do so. He also told me that he rejected that course. I was not present for the conversations he described, and I recount them here as they were related to me by him. They have nonetheless formed an important part of my understanding of those turbulent events.

The recent Supreme Court judgment has prompted me to reflect upon decisions made years earlier, including my own. Hindsight will always invite criticism. Yet decisions must be judged in the context in which they were made, upon the information then available and the conduct then observed.

I do not ask readers to adopt my conclusions. I ask only that they understand the reasons for them. My recommendation was never founded upon personal allegiance. It was founded upon what I believed to be proven professional merit demonstrated under demanding circumstances.

History will ultimately render its own verdict on every individual who occupied public office during those difficult years. My purpose has been far more modest: to explain, candidly and faithfully, why I recommended Pujith Jayasundara to become Inspector General of Police.

In my considered opinion, Pujith Jayasundara became the sacrificial lamb. Whether others have escaped accountability, or merely benefited from a temporary reprieve, is a question that history has yet to answer.

Roger Srivasan
London
1 August 2026

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