More powers given to Sri Lankan Easter attacks probe body

Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena has conferred additional powers on the five-member Commission of Inquiry (COI) he appointed in September to probe the April 21 Easter Sunday bombings that claimed over 250 lives, a media report said on Thursday.

The additional powers will enable the Commission to call upon any bank in Sri Lanka to produce any book or document containing entries relating to the account of any person who was being probed the Commission or even of the spouse or child of the accused, the Colombo-based Daily Financial Times newspaper in the report.

The COI will also have additional powers to write to the Commissioner-General of Inland Revenue asking to furnish all information available related to the affairs of any accused person.

President Sirisena conferred the additional powers on the COI upon the request of the Commission, which requested them in order to effectively execute the task assigned to it.

The COI was appointed on September 20. Its members are Court of Appeal judges Janaka de Silva and Nissanka Bandula Karunaratne, Retired Judges of the Court of Appeal Nihal Sunil Rajapaksa and Bandula Kumara Atapattu and Retired Ministry Secretary W.M.M.R. Adikari.

A series of bomb explosions occurred in churches and the luxury hotels on April 21 in the island nation which killed over 250 people.

At least 100 suspects have been arrested over alleged links to the attacks and the suspects are currently under the custody of the Criminal Investigations Department and the Terrorism Investigations Department, the police said.

A local radical group named the National Thawheed Jammath, has been blamed for the attacks.