After Alleged Torture, Ex-Sri Lankan Spy Master Admitted To Hospital

A once powerful intelligence chief in Sri Lanka is said to be in critical condition after suffering what his family describes as “inhuman treatment” while in custody for alleged complicity in the Easter terror attack of 2019, which killed 269 people.

Retired Major General Suresh Sallay’s wife, Manori, says her husband was targeted because the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) government eventually wants to arrest former President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, who had chosen Sallay as the country’s spy master.

Government investigators are probing allegations that Sallay, a long-time intelligence operative, conspired with Islamist radicals in connection with the April 21, 2019, bombings to create an atmosphere of fear, which helped Rajapaksa sweep elections months later. 

Rajapaksa, seen as a Sinhalese strongman after militarily crushing the Tamil Tigers, named Sallay, a Malay Muslim, to head the powerful State Intelligence Service (SIS). The appointment, his family admits, triggered a fair amount of professional jealousy.

Sallay, now 58, has repeatedly denied any links to the Islamists. He asserts he was attending a National Defence College course in India when he is assumed to have met the terrorists who set off a string of bombs in multiple churches and hotels in Sri Lanka. 

‘They want to see him dead’ 

One of Sallay’s lawyers, former cabinet minister Udaya Gammanpila, alleges that Sallay has been subjected to “unprecedented torture” since his arrest on February 25, 2026, in an attempt to break him and drive him to self-harm. 

 “They [the government] know he has nothing to do with the Easter bombings. They have realised the truth,” Gammanpila told this writer, just before Sallay’s hospitalisation on Sunday (June 7). “The government is in a very difficult situation. They are fabricating a story for their survival.” 

“The American Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Australian Federal Police have shown that the Islamic State alone was involved [in the attack]. So, those holding him [Sallay] are doing everything they can to compel him to commit suicide. The government wants to see him dead. Only then can they survive,” he added.

According to Gammanpila, once Sallay is no more, the prosecution can claim that they could not prove the conspiracy in the Easter killings because the main suspect is dead.

Family and friends’ testimonies 

Sallay’s friends and family say extreme measures have been taken to break him physically and psychologically. Yet, officials maintain that he was not tortured. As his health deteriorated sharply, he was rushed to the Colombo National Hospital on Sunday (June 7) and immediately warded in the emergency care unit.  

After visiting him in Criminal Investigation Department (CID) custody for the first time since his arrest, Manori, who had earned a graduate degree in business administration from New Delhi, says she was shocked to see his physical condition.

“He is very weak, very frail and thin,” the 51-year-old says. “His waistline has come down from 36 to 30 inches. When I went [to meet him], he could not stand up. Two men had to support him. I can’t believe what they have done to him. It is inhuman.”

“He is kept in a cell that is as small as a cage. The light is on 24 x 7 and he is not allowed to use the toilet after a certain time. He gets little food, some of which is often spoiled. We want to give him homemade food but our request has not been granted,” she adds. Sallay looked malnourished, had developed blood sugar and was suffering from weak eyesight.

Manori insists her husband is “completely innocent” and the government wishes to target Rajapaksa, whose presidency ended in a disaster amid an economic collapse in Sri Lanka in 2022. 

“They know he is not involved. It is a political grudge. They are hitting Suresh because they cannot hit Gotabaya…Through Suresh, they want to get Gotabaya,” she claims. 

Sallay goes on hunger strike

Sallay’s supporters note the irony that two senior officers, accused of ignoring intelligence warnings from within as well as from India about the 2019 Easter attacks, now held key posts in the security apparatus. Both are known to be JVP supporters and are said to be prejudiced against Sallay.

According to Attorney-at-law Asith Siriwardena, Sallay has told his family that he will not take any medication, saline supplements, food or water to protest the degrading treatment. Moreover, insisting his death was imminent, Sallay urged his attorney to execute his last will. 

This was just before his hospitalisation, where he continues to fast but is being fed saline. “He is in critical condition,” his wife says. 

In a letter to G.S. Abesekara, director of the CID, the Siriwardena warned that if Sallay suffered irreversible injury or death in custody, “those responsible for decisions concerning his continued detention and medical care may be required to account personally for their actions and omissions.”

Sallay’s lawyers added that he has been subjected to physical torture and report the tripping point came on Friday (June 5), when the rice and curry served to him as usual on a piece of paper, not even a plate, spilled on to the floor. At that moment, Sallay decided he would not accept any more food served by his captors.

The twisted irony of the PTA

In a strange twist of irony, Sallay’s family has told the media that he wants the government to immediately repeal the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA), a draconian legislation under which he is held and which he himself employed against countless others – Tamils and Sinhalese – over the years.

Amid rising political pressure, the government has posted heavy security in and around the hospital where Sallay is admitted. A section of Sinhalese nationalists and Buddhist clergy have taken to the streets against his jailing and alleged torture. In a dramatic turnabout, some Sinhalese hardliners, who were staunch defenders of the PTA until recently, are now demanding the legislation be quashed. 

Differing public opinions

On social media, there are mixed opinions. Some users are saying Sallay is reaping consequences of the sins he accumulated over the years when he ordered the arrest and torture of government opponents and suspected Tamil militants.

Hejaaz Hizbullah, a lawyer who spent 22 months in detention without bail under the PTA and was named by Amnesty International as a “Prisoner of Conscience,” encouraged Sallay to stay strong and fight his case.

“That’s what we did,” he said in a post. “We prayed, exercised, read, met our lawyers and fought our cases. Sallay, who detained us, knows that the conditions for us were worse than they are for him.”

A Sri Lankan Supreme Court lawyer has added that Sallay’s allegations regarding his alleged torture brought to light what local and foreign rights activists have claimed for decades: torture is widespread and institutionalised within Sri Lanka.

“When Tamils and JVP members called out torture, there was a tendency to dismiss such complaints with contempt,” said the lawyer under the condition of anonymity. “Now, a former chief interrogator and his family have recorded what goes on in custody. Nevertheless, Sallay should have known. Far worse things have happened to people arrested on the most flimsy charges in Sri Lanka.”

M.R. Narayan Swamy is a veteran journalist.

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