Ex-senior DIG Lalith Jayasinghe was sentenced to five years imprisonment by the Ratnapura High Court.

Former senior DIG, Sabaragamuwa Province, Lalith Jayasinghe, has been sentenced to five years' imprisonment by Ratnapura High Court Judge Lanka Jayaratne today (25) while delivering the verdict in a case filed by the Attorney General against former DIG Jayasinghe.

The Attorney General indicted the accused for exerting undue pressure on Kahawatte Police OIC not to arrest Premalal Jayasekera, who was due to be taken into custody on suspicion of shooting at a group of opposition party organisers while erecting a stage for a political meeting at Kahawatte in 2015 and committing an offence punishable under the Penal Code.

Deputy Solicitor General Janaka Bandara, representing the Attorney General, told the court that, as a government official and law enforcement officer, the defendant had committed a serious offence and that the maximum punishment should be given. He pointed out that the maximum punishment of 5 years imprisonment can be imposed for violating Section 209 of the Penal Code of Sri Lanka.

The judge sentenced him to imprisonment with minor labour instead of imprisonment with hard labour, considering the age and ill health of the accused DIG.