Opposition parties in the country also closed ranks behind the jailed defeated presidential candidate, demanding his release and saying that the authorities were framing him.
As protests against the arrest spilled onto the streets, riot police used tear gas, water cannons and canes to break up thousands of clashing Fonseka supporters and ruling party activists.
As jailed Fonseka’s fate remains uncertain, the authorities on Tuesday night allowed his wife to meet him, a top military official said on Wednesday.
“Anoma Fonseka spent three hours at the place where Fonseka is and brought food from home for him on Tuesday night,” Military Spokesman Major General Prasad Samarasinghe said.
Minister of Media Lakshman Yapa Abeywardena charged that the opposition was trying to gain political advantages from the arrest of the general.
He said Fonseka had been arrested under Military Act 57(1) for divulging secrets while in service and that it did not amount of political vengeance. Abeywardena said a possible court martial would follow the summary of evidence being collected by the military.
Trouble erupted as Fonseka’s wife Anoma arrived at the Supreme Court premises to file a petition challenging her husband’s detention. Thousands of opposition supporters who had gathered there raised slogans against his arrest.
The court will hear Fonseka’s detention case on Friday. Addressing a media conference, the minister explained that the former army chief was arrested by the military police as investigations into his conduct while in the army were launched only after he retired from military service.
Opposition parties said they feared that Fonseka’s life is in danger. He is being held at the naval headquarters.
They said that the government was yet to spell out the charges against him with the defence ministry spokesman Keheliya Rambukwalla merely telling reporters that the general had colluded with opposition politicians while heading the army last year.
Meanwhile, Sri Lanka on Wednesday announced the dates for snap parliamentary polls which will be held on April 8. The schedule for the elections was announced after President Mahinda Rajapaksa dissolved the parliament on Tuesday night and a notification said that process of nominating candidates would start from February 19. The new Parliament is scheduled to meet on April 22.
The opposition while welcoming early polls demanded that the process should be “free and fair”.