Former Sri Lankan Navy Commander Admiral Ravindra Wijegunaratne has been officially named as a suspect in connection with the abduction and disappearance of 11 individuals in Colombo and its suburbs, in incidents believed to have been carried out for ransom.
According to Sri Lankan media reports, court officials have issued notice requiring Wijegunaratne to appear before the Colombo Magistrate's Court on 27 July.
The case relates to a series of alleged abductions that took place between 2008 and 2009, and has become widely known as the "Navy 11" case. The victims — predominantly Tamil youths — have never been found and are believed to have been killed by the perpetrators. They have been named as Kasthuriarachchi John, Thyagarajah Jegan, Rajiv Naganathan, Soosaipillai Amalan, Soosaipillai Roshan, Kasthuriarachchi Anton, Prageeth Vishvanathan, Thilakeshwaran Ramalingam, Mohamed Dilan, Mohamed Saajid and Ali Anwar. Two fathers and their sons are among the victims; their ages ranged from 17 to 50 at the time of their abductions.
The principal suspect in the abductions and murders is Lieutenant Commander Chandana Prasad Hettiarachchi, known as "Navy Sampath," a naval intelligence officer accused of leading a kidnap-for-ransom squad that held its victims at navy bases in Trincomalee and Colombo before killing them. Their bodies have never been found.
Wijegunaratne's role
Wijegunaratne is one of Sri Lanka's most prominent naval officers and played a key role in several major military operations during the island's armed conflict. He served alongside the Indian Peace Keeping Force's Marine Commandos (MARCOS) during Operation Pawan in 1987 and later founded the Sri Lankan Navy's Special Boat Squadron (SBS) in 1993. He led the SBS during key operations including the battle of Pooneryn and served as its commanding officer during two separate periods, from 1993 to 1994 and again from 1999 to 2000.
In 2007, Wijegunaratne was appointed Director Naval Operations, overseeing efforts to disrupt Sea Tiger maritime supply routes and prevent military equipment from reaching the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam. He was appointed Commander of the Navy in 2015, promoted to the rank of Admiral in 2017 and, later that year, assumed the post of Chief of Defence Staff.
Wijegunaratne's specific role in the Navy 11 case centres on allegations that he sheltered Hettiarachchi, who was evading court proceedings, within a naval residence, and then facilitated his escape from Sri Lanka. The Criminal Investigation Department (CID) alleged that he provided Rs 500,000 in cash to help Hettiarachchi flee the country, and that he had sent communications to naval headquarters protecting Hettiarachchi even after an open arrest warrant had been issued against him.
Arrest, release and the 2018 courtroom appearance
Wijegunaratne was arrested and remanded in November 2018, at which point he was serving as Chief of Defence Staff — the highest-ranked military officer in Sri Lanka. His arrest came after weeks during which he had ignored three successive court summons and, on one occasion, travelled to Mexico while investigators were seeking a statement from him.
When he finally appeared before the Colombo Fort Magistrate's Court, he arrived in full military regalia. The magistrate denied bail, stating from the bench that in his position Wijegunaratne was able to influence witnesses and disrupt the investigation. The court also heard that Wijegunaratne and his associates had, over the weekend before his court appearance, attempted to abduct a key witness, Lieutenant Commander Laksiri Galagamage, who had previously testified against him. Members of his entourage attacked journalists outside the court as the hearing concluded.
He was released on bail in December 2018. The charges against him were subsequently dropped in 2024, on the recommendation of then Attorney General Sanjay Rajaratnam, and a Colombo Fort magistrate ordered his release following preliminary inquiries.
Court rules release order flawed
That discharge was successfully challenged by attorney Achala Seneviratne, acting on behalf of the families of the victims. Following a lengthy hearing, Colombo Fort Magistrate Isuru Neththikumara ruled in April 2026 that the previous release order was legally flawed. The court directed the CID to re-indict Wijegunaratne as a suspect and file fresh charges. The magistrate also emphasised the responsibility of the Attorney General to ensure justice is served in the case.
The court notice requiring Wijegunaratne to appear on 27 July is the direct consequence of that ruling.
The Raviraj connection
Hettiarachchi, the principal suspect in the abductions, is also one of the accused in the 2006 assassination of Tamil National Alliance parliamentarian Nadarajah Raviraj. Sri Lanka's Court of Appeal ordered a retrial in the Raviraj case in March 2026, after finding that crown witness testimony had not been properly assessed by the jury in the original trial, which acquitted all five accused in 2016. Wijegunaratne was reported to have provided funds to assist Hettiarachchi in evading arrest in connection with both cases.
A witness in the Raviraj inquiry testified that the killing had been planned by officials attached to a Navy intelligence office in the Gangarama area of Colombo, and that the perpetrators fled directly to that office after the shooting. A police constable from the intelligence unit additionally gave evidence that then Defence Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa had known about the murder and arranged a payment of Rs 50 million to factions associated with the Karuna group. Those allegations have not resulted in any prosecution.
A long pattern of impunity
Wijegunaratne's trajectory since the 2018 arrest illustrates the broader impunity that has shielded those accused of crimes against Tamils. After charges were dropped, rather than facing prosecution, he was appointed Sri Lanka's High Commissioner to Pakistan under the government of President Ranil Wickremesinghe, alongside two other accused individuals receiving diplomatic postings. He also received Pakistan's Nishan-e-Imtiaz, one of that country's highest civilian honours.
The pattern extended to others implicated in the same case. In 2021, charges against former Navy Commander Wasantha Karannagoda — the 14th suspect named in the Navy 11 case, who had commanded the navy at the time of the abductions — were dropped by the Attorney General, drawing condemnation from the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and Amnesty International. Karannagoda was subsequently appointed governor of the North Western Province by then Sri Lankan president and accused war criminal Gotabaya Rajapaksa.
Hettiarachchi himself was sanctioned by the United States in December 2021 under Section 7031(c) of the Foreign Operations Appropriations Act, for the "flagrant denial of the right to liberty" of the Navy 11 victims. He and his immediate family members are barred from entering the United States. Karannagoda was subsequently also subjected to a US visa ban, after the State Department described the allegation that he had committed a gross human rights violation as "serious and credible." The UK later sanctioned Karannagoda, alongside former Army Commander Shavendra Silva and Jagath Jayasuriya, imposing travel bans and asset freezes. Wijegunaratne has not been sanctioned by the United States, the United Kingdom or Canada.
Journalist assaults and intimidation
Alongside the Navy 11 allegations, Wijegunaratne has faced separate accusations of assaulting media personnel. In December 2016, he was caught on camera allegedly threatening and assaulting a journalist during a Sri Lanka Navy intervention at a dockworkers' strike at Hambantota Port. His bodyguards were reported to have attacked journalists outside the Colombo Fort Magistrate's Court during his 2018 court appearance.