COLOMBO: Sri Lankan investigators arrested a former navy chief on Monday over the abduction and disappearance of a suspect 15 years ago, a police officer said.

Admiral Nishantha Ulugetenne was taken into custody over the disappearance in 2010, when he headed the Directorate of Naval Intelligence, said a detective who asked not to be named as he was not authorised to speak to media.

Ulugetenne, who also served as Sri Lanka’s ambassador to Cuba following his retirement from the navy in December 2022, was remanded in custody until Wednesday.

“We recorded a statement from him regarding the disappearance of a 48-year-old man in 2010 and he was later arrested,” he said. Ulugetenne’s arrest comes after an investigation into another former navy chief, Wasantha Karannagoda, which drew attention to extrajudicial killings during Sri Lanka’s 37-year Tamil separatist war.

The killings have been raised at consecutive UN Human Rights Council meetings, which have called for independent investigations into atrocities committed during the separatist conflict.

Published in Dawn, July 29th, 2025