CID admits to stripping, conducting deep invasive search on Suresh Sallay, reveals wife

Colombo, June 17 (Daily Mirror) - Manori Sallay, the wife of former Director of the State Intelligence Service (SIS), Major General (Retired) Suresh Sallay, today alleged that the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) has, for the first time, admitted to subjecting Suresh Sallay to a deeply invasive physical search. 

Speaking to the media following a Human Rights Commission hearing, Manori Sallay said that the CID officially acknowledged removing her husband from his cell, stripping him naked in front of others and conducting a deep invasive rectal examination while he was handcuffed.

According to Ms. Sallay, the CID had repeatedly denied these allegations since the incident took place on March 8. However, during the recent Human Rights Commission session, which the CID officials attended after failing to appear for a previous hearing, the department formally admitted to the practice. 

She said that following the admission, the Commission requested the CID to provide relevant CCTV footage, the names of the officers involved in the search, and the official circulars guiding such protocols.

"When Sallay was initially taken into judicial custody and examined by a Judicial Medical Officer (JMO), he was in good health. It was only after he was transferred to a specialised "punishment cell" that these severe search measures and alleged tortures were implemented," she said.

Detailing his current detention conditions, Ms. Sallay said that her husband was held in a restrictive 6x4-foot cell with absolutely no ventilation. She alleged that a light bulb is kept switched on 24 hours a day as a form of psychological torture, and that he was forced to sleep on a bare cement floor for the first 40 days. 

The confinement area is reportedly heavily infested with rodents, with Ms. Sallay claiming that two to three other detainees on the same floor had previously required medical injections after being bitten by rats. The cell’s close proximity to the toilets has further aggravated her husband’s chronic migraine condition due to the persistent odor, she alleged.

According to his wife, Sallay continues to refuse food and fluids, leaving medical staff to sustain him through minimal intravenous intervention. She described him as being in an extremely weak state, noting that he experiences severe difficulty in speaking, is unable to sit upright for extended periods and suffers from extensive swelling in his arms due to prolonged cannula usage.

Ms. Sallay said that she has written to the President on two separate occasions detailing the alleged human rights violations and requesting an intervention. However, she said that to date, the family has received neither a formal response nor a basic acknowledgement of the correspondence.