1962 Ceylonese coup d ' état attempt The 1962 Ceylonese coup d ' état attempt ( also known as the " Colonels coup " ) was a failed military coup planned in Sri Lanka ( Ceylon ) . Several Christian senior military and policy officers planned to topple the democratically elected government of Prime Minister Mrs . Sirimavo Bandaranaike in the night of 27 January 1962 , however , key leaders were arrested before the coup was carried out . Background . Ceylon gained independence from Britain in 1948 and was called the Dominion of Ceylon . This marked the beginning of self - rule for the local population . However much of the political and government leadership of the country was passed down from the British to the Ceylonese Christian elite , who had served the British before 1948 . As a result , all of the high offices of state were held by these elite . In 1956 S . W . R . D . Bandaranaike , an Anglican who converted to Buddhism , was elected after a nationalistic movement in which he gathered the support of the Sinhalese people majority of the country , who were considered underprivileged compared to the Christian minority . As promised during the election Bandaranaike began a rapid Sinhalisation of all parts of the government , which culminated in the passage of the Sinhala Only Act . At the same time , he had the last of the British military bases in Ceylon removed and led a move towards a Socialist form of economy . Prior to these changes , the officer corps of the army were composed of three - fifths Christian , one - fifth Tamil , and one - fifth Burgher . Bandaranaike moved to balance this by increasing the number of Sinhalese officers . He was noted for having the post of Inspector General of Police filled by a Buddhist officer over three other more senior Christian officers . By 1961 resentment was building up among the Christians , who felt that they were systematically being eliminated . The country ' s economy worsened , resulting in increasing cost of living and rising unemployment . The military coup by General Ayub Khan in Pakistan inspired a group of disenchanted officers to take action . The planned coup . The Prime Minister was due to leave Colombo to Kataragama on the evening of Friday 26 January 1962 , but did not do so . The Air Force which was under the command of seconded RAF officers were not connected to the coup ; nor were the Army Commander Major General H . Winston G . Wijeyekoon , the Inspector General of Police M . W . F . Abeykoon or the Captain of the Navy Commodore Rajan Kadiragamar . The coup was planned mostly by reserve and retired military and police officers . The plan was code - named " Operation Holdfast " . The Prime Minister , Ministers , the Parliamentary Secretary for Defence and External affairs ( Felix Dias Bandaranaike ) , permanent secretary of the ministry of Defence and External affairs ( N . Q . Dias ) , the Army Commander , the acting Captain of the Navy , the Inspector General of Police , DIG ( CID ) ( S A . Dissanayake ) and SP ( CID ) ( John Attygalle ) were among those to be arrested and taken to the Army Headquarters , where they would be held in the ammunition magazine , which was an underground bunker and hold the prisoners there until further instructions . Other service commanders including the Army Commander were to be restrained and prevented from leaving their houses that night after a certain hour . Soon after midnight police cars equipped with loud hailers were to be sent out to announce an immediate curfew in Colombo city limits . The Central Telegraph Office , Colombo and other city telephone exchanges were to be put out of operation . Newspaper office buildings , Police Headquarters , the CID office and other key points were to be taken over . Armoured cars were to be stationed at certain points to ensure the success of the operation . Troops from the Panagoda Cantonment were to be prevented from reaching Colombo that night at any cost . Armoured cars and army vehicles fitted with radio equipment , were to be stationed at the two Kelani bridges , the Kirillapone Bridge and other places . Signals Corps Despatch rider s , fully armed on motorcycles , were standing by from about 11pm at Torrington ( Independence ) Square to storm Radio Ceylon once the password ' Holdfast ' was given . A special direct telephone line had been laid the previous day , from Army Headquarters at Lower Lake Road to the Echelon Barracks , for use by army personnel . Once the corp was complete the leaders would meet at the Queen ' s House where they would get the Governor General Sir Oliver Goonetilleke to dissolve parliament and take direct control of the state . Stopping the coup . As the coup leaders met to finalize plans , the prime minister was visited by her nephew Felix Dias Bandaranaike and two senior police officers of the Criminal Investigation Department ( CID ) , which included its Director DIG S . A . Dissanayake and SP John Attygalle ( both would later become IGP s ) who informed the PM about an attempt to take over the Government by a coup by certain army , navy and police personnel according to information received . They had earlier informed IGP M . F . W . Abeykoon about the possible coup , who due to the seriousness on the situation notified Felix Dias Bandaranaike , the Minister of Finance and Parliamentary Secretary for Defence and External affairs . A meeting was held at the minister ' s residence at 7 . 00pm where the police officers gave the minister all known information . The minister wanted to act fast to stop the coup and left for the Prime Minister ' s residence , Temple Trees with the two CID officers . The information came from SP ( Colombo ) Stanley Senanayake ( would later become IGP ) , head of Police in Colombo , who after being taken into the confidence of the coup leaders had informed his father - in - law , SLFP MP and party secretary P . de S . Kularatne , who in turn notified the CID . The information took the PM by shock , however under the directions of Felix Dias Bandaranaike , all service commanders , Major General Gerard Wijekoon , Commodore Rajan Kadiragamar , Air Commodore John Barker and the IGP M . F . W . Abeykoon were called to Temple Trees for an emergency meeting . After the meeting in which Stanley Senanayake revealed everything he knew , Felix Dias Bandaranaike ordered to summon to Temple Trees the junior police and army officers who were known to be acting under the orders of the coup leaders , where they were questioned by Felix Dias Bandaranaike personally and the CID . It was revealed that the coup ' s military element was led by Colonel Fredrick C . de Saram of the Ceylon Artillery ( he was a cousin of S . W . R . D . Bandaranaike ) and Colonel Maurice de Mel the Commandant of the Volunteer Force ( second - in - command of the Army ) ; the police element was led by DIG C . C . " Jungle " Dissanayake the Senior Deputy Inspector General of Police in change of Range I ( brother of DIG S . A . Dissanayake , Director of the CID ) and DIG Sydney de Zoysa responsible of coordination between the services ; it was planned by Deputy Director of Land Development , Douglas Liyanage of the Ceylon Civil Service and supported by Rear Admiral Royce de Mel , recently relieved captain of the navy and brother of Colonel Maurice de Mel . The coup was to be carried out by troops from the 3rd Field Regiment , 2nd Volunteer Antiaircraft Regiment of the Ceylon Artillery ( almost the entire officer corps of these regiment were involved ) , 2nd ( V ) Field / Plant Regiment , Ceylon Engineers ; 2nd Volunteer Signals Regiment , Ceylon Signals Corps and Armoured cars of the Sabre troop of the Ceylon Armoured Corps . Captain Nimal Jayakody and Captain Tony Anghie of 3rd Field Artillery Regiment , Ceylon Artillery were members of the first batch of officer cadets of the Ceylon Army and had been trained at Royal Military Academy Sandhurst . The first of the arrest of the coup was to be effected at 9 . 30pm when Neal de Alwis , MP for Baddegama was arrested from his residence . At this point C . C . " Jungle " Dissanayake received a call at his residence that the plan had been compromised and the leaders decided to call off the coup . At Temple Trees it was informed that the duty officer for the night at Police headquarters ASP V . T . Dickman had been replaced by a known conspirator . By this time navy ' s internal security personnel were detailed to guard Temple Trees , since no one was sure how deep the conspiracy had penetrated the ranks of the army and police . The PM ordered the arrest of Dissanayake and J . F . Bede Johnpillai ( ASP Traffic ) . They were arrested that night and the following day Colonel F . C . de Saram , Colonel Maurice de Mel and Rear Admiral Royce de Mel were arrested along with many others . In all 31 conspirators , Commissioned Officers from the Army and the Navy , Gazetted Officers from the Police and one civil servant were arrested . The aftermath . Since no shots were fired and no troops deployed , the conspirators couldn ' t be charged . So they were remanded , pending trial , in a special section of the Welikada Prison called the Magazine Section . A special security detachment was selected called the " composite guard " to guard these officers from the Ceylon Light Infantry with Major A Hulangamuwa in Charge . They were held in solitary confinement in hope of getting a confession . All the 26 charged with conspiring to overthrow the an elected government were Christians , in terms of ethnicity , there were 12 Sinhalese , six Tamils and six Burghers among them . The remaining five were not prosecuted due to lack of evidence . The accused were defended by some of the best lawyers led by G . G . Ponnambalam , H . W . Jayewardene and S . J . Kadirgamar to counter the " inquisitor " Felix Dias Bandaranaike . However Colonel F . C . de Saram had made a confession assuming full responsibility was used by the prosecution . The government put in place a new law called " Criminal Law Special Provision Act of 1962 " under which hearsay could be admitted as evidence . And to bring the coup case under the draconian law , it was given retrospective effect from January 1 , 1962 . But the first Trial at Bar held in 1962 , under the new law , however the judges dissolved the court saying that they were appointed by the Executive , when the latter had no constitutional right to do so . the Act was then amended to get the Supreme Court to appoint the judges . The second court also dissolved itself because of one of the judges , Hon . Justice A . W . H . Abeyesundere , QC , in his earlier post as Attorney General , had assisted the investigation of the case . A Third Court sat for 324 days from June 3 , 1963 , and convicted 11 of the 24 accused including Col F . C . de Saram , Col . Maurice de Mel , Rear Admiral Royce de Mel , Douglas Liyanage , Sidney de Zoysa , Wilmot Abraham ( later died in prison in 1964 ) , B . I . Loyola , Wilton White , Nimal Jayakody , Noel Matthysz , Victor Joseph , Basil Jesudason , John Felix , David Tambyah , Samuel Jackson and Rodney de Mel . The sentence was ten years in jail and confiscation of property . However the condemned took their case to the Privy Council , In its ruling given in December 1965 , it held the Special Act of 1962 ultra vires of the Ceylon constitution and said that the Act had denied fair trial . According to the Privy Council the law had been specially enacted to convict the men , under trial they did not have the protections that they would have had under general criminal law . It acquitted all the eleven . Of the accused Col . De Saram returned to his family law firm , Douglas Liyanage was appointed Secretary to the Ministry of State in the early 1980s , Capt . John A . R . Felix went on to become the Commissioner - General of Inland Revenue and Lt . Col . Basil Jesudasan became the Chairman of Carsons Cumberbatch PLC . It was claimed that they had hoped to replace the government with a junta of ex - Prime Ministers . Therefor some of the Crown witnesses tried to link the then Governor - General , Sir Oliver Goonetilleke , and former Prime Ministers , Dudley Senanayake and Colonel Sir John Kotelawala , with the conspiracy . Although this was never proven Sir Oliver Goonetilleke resigned as Governor - General and went into self - imposed exile in Britain , he was replaced by Sirimavo Bandaranaike ' s uncle William Gopallawa who was at the time serving as Ceylon ' s Ambassador to the US . Result of the coup attempt . The primary result of the coup attempt was that it led to Sirimavo Bandaranaike ' s distrust of the military . Even though the Army Commander Winston Wijekoon and the IGP M . W . F . Abeykoon were not aware of the coup , the former was replaced in 1963 by Major General A . R . Udugam , the first Sinhala - Buddhist Army Commander , overlooking the more senior Brigadier ( later Major General ) B . R . Heyn who was made commander after him . This was entirely racially motivated , because Heyn was a Dutch Burgher , not Sinhalese . Funding for the services were cut drastically greatly affecting its growth and disabling its ability of defending Ceylon in the long term . The 1st Heavy Antiaircraft Regiment was amalgamated with 3rd Field Regiment to form 4th Regiment of the Ceylon Artillery , the 2nd ( V ) Antiaircraft Regiment of the Ceylon Artillery and the 2nd ( V ) Field / Plant Regiment of the Ceylon Engineers were disbanded and the 2nd ( V ) Signal Regiment of the Ceylon Signals Corps was brought to form the National Service Regiment . Military hardware procurements limited . The Navy was also hard hit , many of its ships were sold and its blue water capability lost , it would not regain it former ability until the 1980s and 1990s . Inter service cooperation in the form of joint operations were suspended . As a result , the military was under strength and ill - equipped to deal with the 1971 JVP Insurrection , during another government of Sirimavo Bandaranaike . To overcome the situation Sri Lanka had to rely on help from other countries . Following the Bandaranaike government ' s electoral defeat in 1965 , Dudley Senanayake became Prime Minister . To prevent a future coup he created the Special Branch of the Ceylon Police Force charged with national security . This was however disbanded when Sirimavo Bandaranaike was again elected in 1970 which resulted in her government being caught off guard , with no early warning when the 1971 JVP Insurrection started .