Chief of Defence staff Admiral Ravindra Wijegunaratne is likely to be given an honourable exit from the military service before his arrest, Asian Mirror learns. 

This means the Defence chief will be given a chance to retire from his service before his arrest by the CID. 

Top government sources said if Wijegunaratne faced arrest while in active military service he would not be given an honourable exit. 

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

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

If the CID arrests him over the incident while in service, 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.