5th Column
Saluting the sinful
View(s):My Dear Dumi,
I thought I must write to you when I heard that you had made a sudden and complete recovery and was returning home. Dumi, you have done the impossible and proved many people wrong, so congratulations are in order!
I am sure there would have been many people who would have been hoping that you would be out of action for a few years to come, so that they could sneak into either your seat in Parliament or at least become the organiser for the Blues at Kolonnawa. Now that you have shown that you are back with a bang, they will be disappointed and they may make nasty comments about your recovery. But Dumi, you can’t blame them for this because honestly, even I was surprised and I will tell you why.
Since you suddenly disappeared after that shooting incident, Dumi, we didn’t really know what happened to you or where you were. We only knew that you were still a suspect in a murder and that as such, you had to be produced in court, even if you are such an innocent person.
Then a senior government official was saying that you were not a suspect in the murder. That seemed somewhat strange because you were at the scene and witnesses were claiming that you were having an argument with the victim, but we believed that too because you are such an innocent person.
After some months, Dumi, they did say that you were a suspect and that made it even more complicated. They should have arrested you but by then you were out of the country and apparently undergoing treatment. That meant, of course, that you would have to be arrested when you returned.
No-one really knew that you had returned but when word got out, there were people demanding that you should be arrested. We thought too that it would be best for you to present yourself to courts and clear you name because you are such an innocent person.
Then you went before the courts and said that you “cannot remember” anything about the incident. Some said that it is quite convenient and that the criminal justice system would face problems if all accused murderers began to say that, but we believed you because you are such an innocent person.
Even if you didn’t remember anything, you had to be remanded because you were a suspect, and then they said you were so ill that you couldn’t be treated in prison or even in prison hospital and that you had to be treated in a private hospital. We believed that too because you are such an innocent person.
Pardon me, Dumi, because we believed all what you and your lawyers said and because you are such an innocent person, our picture of you was of a long-suffering patient who was very ill who had been confined to a hospital room because he had lost his memory and was seriously injured.
Imagine our surprise when you suddenly emerged from that hospital last week, chubby and cherubic, looking like a fattened version of Sachin Tendulkar in a life insurance commercial rather than a critically ill patient! It was a pleasant surprise, of course, because you are such an innocent person.
Some people find it strange that one day, you were so ill that you had to remain in hospital. The very next day when you were granted bail, you had made a miraculous recovery and was fit enough to go home. But I suppose such co-incidences happen, especially when you are such an innocent person!
Your lawyers told court that you must be kept in a sterile environment in a private hospital because there was a risk of germs entering your wounds and causing infection but you were mixing freely with the hoi polloi and their sweat and tears! Is that because you were too innocent to realise that?
Your family says your ‘exit’ from hospital was meant to be a low key affair, so it is strange that your supporters knew exactly when you would be leaving hospital, so they could gather there carrying packets of milk and maalu paan and shout slogans. Maybe they did it because you are so innocent!
Anyway, Dumi, it is nice to know that having been released on bail, you are among friends and that you are safe and well protected. I was pleasantly surprised to see a picture of a senior police officer saluting you, but that is probably because you are such an innocent person!
Of course, there will be those who say that we live in a country where Police officers salute murder suspects but Chief Justices and Army Commanders are treated like common criminals and asked to appear in courts, but isn’t that why we call this country the ‘Miracle of Asia’?
So take care, Dumi. I am sure you will make a full and complete recovery-and you looked as if you have already done that-except of course that lapse of memory for the incident which I am also sure, will never return. Don’t worry too much about it, it will go down in history as the ‘Duminda defense’!
Yours truly,
Punchi Putha
PS-I saw your family had issued a statement explaining what happened when you left hospital and released photographs of your surgery perhaps to convince everyone that what they said was true. You must tell them they shouldn’t bother going to all that trouble because what matters is not photographs but whether justice is done and in your case, everyone knows whether it was done or not!
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