Pujith Jayasundera - Life story
It is a hope that rests within the public about Pujith Jayasundera who has been appointed as the new Inspector General of Police. He is someone who was acclaimed among the masses. However most people are unaware much about him. Actually, who is this Pujitha?
Given below is a note about him.Pujith who was born in Kurunegala is the son of a businessman. After his primary education in two schools in Ibbagamuwa he followed his secondary education at Dharmarajah, Kandy. He was the captain of the football team in college and had been a member of the cricket team too. He displayed skills in studies and after his schooling he obtained a special degree in Management at the University of Sri Jayawardenepura.
It was on May 20th, 1985 that he joined the police service as an Assistant Superintendent of Police. During initial stages he served in Anuradhapura, Kandy and Batticaloa. He was also engaged as the Chief of Operations of Welikanda during the dreadful war era and was Police Chief in Charge of Kegalle and Nikaweratiya and Nuwara Eliya where he was the Senior Police Superintendent. However, on May 31st in the year of 1999 he was stripped of his position as Police Chief of the Kandy Division because he did not work according to the wants of the political stalwart of Nuwara Eliya at that time.
Pujith Jayasundera who was subjected to political revenge was transferred to Police Headquarters and held the position of Director of Police Examinations Division from the year 1999 to 2002. Having been appointed as the Director of narcotics operations in the year 2002 he was instrumental in rejuvenating the narcotics division which upto then was in a state of slumber. His operations to corner drug peddlars of a big scale under his guidance became a success. It was during that period that Mohamed Siyam and his wife who were heroin peddlars on a grand scale were having very close connections with strong politicos and were taken into custody with 23 kilos of heroin in their possession from a mansion down Ward Place, Colombo 7. News that an Inspector General of Police had attended the birthday celebrations of a daughter of a certain drug dealer came to light also during the period when Mr. Pujith Jayasundera was a Director of the Police Narcotics Division.
Mr. Pujith Jayasundera who was promoted to the position of Deputy Inspector General of Police on May 10th, 2005 was thereafter engaged in activities in charge of the Narcotics Unit, in charge of Colombo Province, Kurunegala Province, Jaffna Province and Kandy Province. During the period he was Deputy Inspector General of Police he activated the civil security force committee and by bringing the public of Colombo City together he launched a massive duty towards safeguarding the City of Colombo and after he got a transfer to Kurunegala Province he carried out a social service programme towards his town too. As such, by amalgamating and getting together both the police and the village he managed to launch a big-scale development programme to establish barricades for elephants, tanks and dams, housing structures and restoration of dilapidated bridges and culverts. It was according to a security plan launched by Pujith Jayasundera in the area under his domain that a lorry containing over a thousand kilos of explosives which the LTTE had planned utilise to attack the Diyatalawa Camp and thus destroy thousands of soldiers was taken into custody.
During the time engaged as the DIG of Jaffna and Kandy Province he hept a close bond with the civil public and thus was able to develop their trust in the police. It was when Pujith Jayasundera was in charge of Uva and North Western Province and also of the Eastern Province that he was promoted to the position of Deputy General of Police and was then promoted to the rank of Inspector General of Police. He attained this post at the time he was in charge of the Western Province. During that period he at one time has been the Acting Inspector General of Police and it is of particular interest to record that he was connected to training sessions of terrorist control, drug control and community-police in countries including Korea, India, Brazil, Japan, Singapore and Thailand.
Mr. Pujith Jayasundera's beloved wife is Punya Shanthi and the two of them are the parents of a daughter named Dilini Shamindika and the younger, by the name of Prasanga Anuradha.
Note -- Gayan Kumara Weerasingha