As member of the Christianelite, who ever being deprived of the influence they once had due to the Sihinalaisation process started by Prime Minister S.W.R.D. Bandaranaike and carried on by Sirimavo Bandaranaike, several disgruntled Christian officers of the army, navy and police began to plot a coup similar to that of General Ayub Khan. The coup members intended to carry out the coups d'état at midnight 27 January 1962 under the instigation of J.F.D. Liyanage of the Ceylon Civil Service and leadership of Colonel F. C. de Saram and C.C. Dissanayake. Colonel de Saram, who would command the military units of the corp and C.C. Dissanayake the police units. The plan was to use troops from the Ceylon Artillery and several other volunteer units along with scout cars of the Ceylon Armoured Corps and policemen to detain the Prime Minister Sirimavo Bandaranaike at Temple Trees and round up cabinet ministers, the Permanent Secretary for Defence and External affairs, the Inspector General of Police, DIG, SP and the acting Navy Commander. The Army Commander were to be restrained too. Colombo placed under curfew and cut off from regular army units based at the Panagoda Cantonment. After the coup members gain control, the newly-self appointed Major-General F. C. De Saram, General Officer Commanding Ceylon, was to command all Military establishments and would have the Governor generalSirOliver Goonetilleke to dissolve parliament. C.C. Dissanayake would become acting Inspector General of Police. However one of the plotters, SP of Colombo Stanley Senanayake who was brought into the plot that morning by Dissanayake warned the government and all the plotters were arrested. Since no actual coup had happen the government was determined to punish the accused and with the cabinet carrying out the investigation instead of the police, had them confined to solitary confinement in hope of getting a confession. Finlay F. C. de Saram did make a confession, taking all blame for the coup that would become the prosecutions main article of evidence. Dissanayake made no confession, however the day after his arrest he was removed of his post in the police. On 3 June 1963, he was convicted with 11 others out of the 24 accused and sentenced to 10 years in jail and confiscation of property after laws had been modified the government in order to convicted the plotters. The conviction was overruled on appeal to the Privy Council, which ruled that the new Act had denied fair trial, since the new laws only effect the accused.
Family
He and his wife had two daughters and a son. His son T.D.S.A. Dissanayake became a Sri Lanka and UN diplomat going on to become Sri Lankan Ambassador to Indonesia and Egypt. The current Colombo district Member of ParliamentRavi Karunanayake is his grandson. His brother was DIG S.A. Dissanayake, who was the Director of the Criminal Investigation Department, he was on the list of those to be arrested during the coup, but in turn played a pivotal role in stopping the coup. S. A. Dissanayake went on to become the Inspector General of Police.