The Supreme Court (SC) ruled yesterday (23) that former Senior Deputy Inspector General of Police (DIG) for the Western Province Deshabandu Tennakoon and former Officer-in-Charge of the Colombo North Special Investigation Unit Nalin Sriyantha violated the Fundamental Rights (FR) of an activist by unlawfully arresting and detaining him during the 2022 Aragalaya protests.

The ruling was delivered after the SC heard an FR petition filed by activist Anuruddha Bandara, with the Court holding that the actions of Tennakoon and Sriyantha amounted to an infringement of his Constitutionally guaranteed FR.