The move comes after a commission found Deshabandu Tennakoon guilty of gross abuse of power.
Sri Lanka’s Parliament has voted to fire the country’s police chief for misconduct and gross abuse of power in the island’s first impeachment of an inspector general.
Lawmakers on Tuesday voted to sack Deshabandu Tennakoon, who was accused of sending a team of armed officers on a botched raid in 2023 in Weligama that triggered a gun battle with a separate police unit, leading to the death of an officer.
No one opposed his removal while one member abstained. The decision came after a parliament-appointed committee opened an inquiry into the allegations against Tennakoon and last month released a report that found him guilty of 19 charges related to misconduct and abuse of power.
The committee found that he had “spearheaded the questionable, illegal act of shooting” at the W15 hotel in Weligama, where a local police unit opened fire on a team sent by Tennakoon to intimidate the hotel’s owner.
