Sri Lankan police said on Wednesday that they have not received any details about alleged destruction of evidence related to the 2019 Easter Sunday bombings, a day after President Anura Kumara Dissanayake told Parliament that pages from key investigation reports had been torn out.
Police spokesperson ASP F.U. Wootler told the media that the Criminal Investigation Department was handling the matter and that police would brief the media once information was available.
The Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Sri Lanka (CBCSL) said it would take up the issue at a meeting next week.
CBCSL President Rev. Harold Anthony Perera said the President’s disclosure was new and had not yet been formally discussed, though the bishops had previously pressed the government for updates on the stalled inquiries.
Dissanayake told Parliament the government was gathering fresh evidence despite gaps in earlier records, and said senior investigators Shani Abeysekera and Ravi Seneviratne were continuing work on the case.
The Easter Sunday attacks on April 21, 2019, killed more than 270 people and injured at least 500 in coordinated suicide bombings at three churches and three hotels.
Successive governments have been criticised for failing to deliver accountability.
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