Court has directed the Criminal Investigations Department to arrest Chief of Defence Staff Admiral Ravindra Wijegunaratne  if he had helped Chandana Hettiarachchi alias Navy Sampath, the main suspect in the murders of 11 youth in Colombo, to abscond Police. 

Wijegunaratne,  a former Navy Commander, is currently the senior-most position in the active military service. 

If the CID arrests him over the incident, he will be the highest military officer to be arrested for a criminal offence in Sri Lanka. 

Police sources told the CID that there was substantial evidence against Wijegunaratne to suggest that he helped the former Navy officer to flee to Malaysia to avoid Police arrest. 

It was revealed last week that the suspect had also received Rs. 500000 from a Navy account to flee to Malaysia. 

Sampath was arrested in Colombo by the CID, recently, with a forged ID. 

Meanwhile, the Magistrate also ordered to remand Hettiarachchi till September 12 over he murders of 11 youths.