Deshabandu Tennakoon, the Senior Deputy Inspector General of Police (SDIG) in charge of the Western Province, has been appointed as the Acting Inspector General of Police (IGP).

The appointment was made by President Ranil Wickremesinghe pursuant to the powers vested with him, the Police Media Division said in a statement.

Accordingly, SDIG Tennakoon will serve as the Acting IGP for a period of three months. He will duly assume duties in his new position, the statement read further.

Tennakoon joined the police service in 1998 as an apprentice Assistant Superintendent of Police. He was promoted to the posts of Superintendent of Police (SP) in 2006, Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) in 2011, and Deputy Inspector-General (DIG) of Police in 2015.

Later, in November 2019, Tennakoon was appointed the Acting Senior Deputy Inspector-General (SDIG) of Police and was promoted to the post of SDIG on January 01, 2020.

He has been serving as the SDIG in charge of the Western Province for more than three years since December 05, 2019.

Born in 1971, Tennakoon received his school education from Nalanda College in Colombo. He is an alumnus of Colombo University and Kelaniya University where he obtained his bachelor’s and master’s degrees respectively.

During his 25 years of service in Sri Lanka Police, Tennakoon has served in multiple areas of the country. He has rendered notable service to crack down on crimes and narcotics and implement a number of programs in the Western Province to curb the spread of COVID-19 during the pandemic situation.

The appointment comes after former Police Chief C. D. Wickramaratne announced that he would retire from the position, with effect from Nov.25 after four service extensions.

Despite being initially destined to retire from the police service on March 26, President Ranil Wickremesinghe had extended Wickramaratne’s tenure by three months until June 26 by way of a special gazette notification issued in April.

Later, on July 09, he was granted a second service extension of three months, followed by three-week extensions given on October 13 and November 03.

Meanwhile, a proposal is to be presented to the next meeting of the Cabinet of Ministers, stipulating the duration of the tenure of the IGP, sources told Ada Derana. As such, the service period of the police chief will be capped at a maximum of three years.