By Roy Denish.
Police-lawyer tensions in Sri Lanka deepen after a Gampaha attorney alleges senior officers helped initiate a fabricated case against him.
COLOMBO – Tensions between law enforcement and the legal profession have reached a critical juncture following a series of contentious confrontations that have widened the divide between the Bar Association of Sri Lanka (BASL) and state authorities.
The roots of the current friction can be traced back to October 10, 2025, inside the Mount Lavinia Court premises, where a junior lawyer was allegedly subjected to a violent assault by police during a dispute over moving a vehicle.
While the Bar Association strongly condemned the alleged police brutality, the Inspector General of Police (IGP) initiated investigations into the conduct of the legal practitioners involved, triggering an unprecedented wave of hostility between police officers and attorneys across the island.
This fragile institutional relationship has now suffered another severe blow following a fresh and highly controversial incident reported from the Gampaha Judicial District.
Escalation in Gampaha
According to official complaints lodged by the aggrieved attorney, Gampaha Police allegedly orchestrated a malicious act of retaliation by manipulating a local individual into filing a fabricated and baseless case against the lawyer.
Formal complaints regarding the alleged misconduct were lodged directly with the Inspector General of Police and relevant authorities under the following references:
CIB 3266/3 — June 1, 2026
CIB 363/156 — June 16, 2026
The aggrieved legal representative has specifically implicated senior police officials in the alleged orchestration of the case, naming Crime Division Officer-in-Charge Gurusinghe and Headquarters Inspector Mohan de Silva as the principal figures allegedly responsible for filing what members of the local legal community have described as a baseless and politically motivated charge sheet under Gampaha Court case number 06176/26.
Legal analysts warn that these consecutive clashes—moving from Mount Lavinia to Gampaha—risk institutionalising a dangerous fault line between the state machinery charged with upholding the law and the legal fraternity sworn to defend justice.
