Udaya Gammanpila says that Suresh Sallay was arrested to divert public attention away from the coal fraud issue.
He said the government had planned to arrest Sallay in the coming April, but he was arrested earlier in order to shift public attention away from the coal fraud allegations. He said this while speaking to the media about the arrest of former National Intelligence Chief Major General Suresh Sallay.
He also said that Major General Sallay played a major role in defeating Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam terrorism. According to him, LTTE supporters and the diaspora want revenge against Sallay. He said they tried to do this in 2023 through a program broadcast by Channel 4, and that the present government came to power using that situation.
Speaking further to journalists, he said
The government is under great pressure to identify the mastermind of the 2019 Easter bombings in Sri Lanka. By April, it will be seven years since the attacks. Therefore, the question of the mastermind is coming up again. He said the government wants to blame someone and escape responsibility.
He said the government wanted to arrest Pillayan and Major General Sallay over the Easter attacks before the general election. But a committee report prepared by A.M. Imam and appointed by former President Ranil Wickremesinghe showed that the accusations against them were false. He said he made the report public when it was kept hidden, and because of that Sallay was not arrested at that time.
He said Pillayan was arrested in April last year. Sallay was supposed to be arrested in April this year, but he was arrested earlier because of the coal fraud issue.
He also said the President stated in Batticaloa that Pillayan was arrested because of the Easter attacks. The Public Security Minister said in Parliament that Pillayan was revealing secrets about the Easter attacks. But Gammanpila said he visited Pillayan in prison and Pillayan told him he was not even questioned about the Easter attacks.
He said finding the mastermind of the Easter attacks is the government’s responsibility. But he said they will not allow the government to blame an innocent person as the mastermind.