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How miracle maker’s miracle came unstuck 48 hours after his belated advent to face the legal choir in court

Pastor turned self-proclaimed prophet Jerome who claims his miracles can move men and mountains, moved Appeal Court President Justice Nissanka Bandula Karunaratne and Justice Chamath Morais three weeks ago to grant his writ application prayer and issue a stay order on his arrest.

REMANDEE: Led away to remand cell till the next court date on December 13

The order was duly granted against objections from the Attorney General that:

• Reasonable grounds existed to suspect Jerome of money laundering
• He was a suspect in the magistrate’s court case
• There was a travel ban issued against him
• Jerome had filed a writ application to be heard before the Court of Appeal President Justice Bandula Karunaratne and Justice M.A.R. Marikkar.
• Since Justice Bandula Karunaratne was overseas, it was taken up before Justices Sobhitha Rajakaruna and M.A.R. Marikkar. When the case was to be resumed before the same Bench, Jerome had inexplicably withdrawn it.
• More than three weeks later he filed the present second writ application on the same grounds—without giving any legitimate reasons for doing so—to be heard before Appeal Court President Justice Bandula Karunaratne and Justice Chamath Morais.

In his writ application, Jerome Fernando had prayed for two interim reliefs. He had sought to prevent his arrest on the
blasphemy charge and for being suspected of money laundering.

Appearing for the Attorney General, Senior State Counsel Shaminda Wickrema told court that the only inference that could be drawn for Jerome’s actions was that he was ‘bench hunting for a bench consisting of Appeal Court President Justice Nissanka Bandula Karunaratne since the President was the common factor whenever the petitioner wanted to urgently and diligently pursue either case.’

The Attorney General’s written submissions cited precedents from superior courts which emphasised that the ‘bench hunting’ issue should be considered ‘at the threshold stage before allowing this application to proceed further’.  Jerome’s counsel Jagath Wickremanayake PC, however, refuted the ‘bench hunting ‘submission.

The Order of the Appeal Court granting the writ application was delivered by Justice Morais on November 17 with the Court’s President Justice Karunaratne agreeing. However, it made no reference to the ‘bench hunting’ issue nor to the other objections raised by the Attorney General.

In his Order, Justice Morais held: ‘To every person his religion is the best. Hence it is unavoidable and quite natural that when someone speaks highly of his own religion, the feelings of followers of other religions would get hurt. To create an offence under the ICCPR Act, it requires more than just a hurting of the feeling.’

On the money laundering issue, Justice Morais held: ‘An offence cannot be alleged even, until a statement is recorded from the petitioner, and fully inquired into such.’

Accordingly, the court directed that Jerome should not be arrested upon arrival provided he gave a statement to the CID within 48 hours. The Court held that after he had given a statement, ‘the law should take its own course.’

The law, indeed, took its own course, the same course it would have taken, had it not been prevented by Jerome’s sudden fugitive flight abroad, just hours before a travel ban was issued against him. It also denied the CID from obtaining a statement from him.

After nearly six months of absconding justice, Jerome returned on Wednesday, November 29. The next day, Thursday, he spent eight hours at the CID giving a statement. The following morning, the miracle maker’s miracle came unstuck when he was promptly arrested and remanded, 48 hours after touchdown. His next court date is on the 13th. Unless he has a new miracle up his sleeve, he faces weeks behind remand bars.

Earlier this year two others—a YouTuber and a female stand-up comic—had paid their share of penal penance for the same offence. It was now Jerome’s turn to be made equal before the bar of justice.

Another offender who has still not been called to face justice is the monk, Pitiduwe Siridhamma alias Samanthabadra who claims to have become a Buddha himself. His right to hallucinate is not disputed. But when Samanthabadra callously distorts and slanders the moral character of the Buddha as he recently did on various social media platforms, it cannot be ignored and remains unpunished.

Samanthabadra had imputed an improper relationship between Prince Siddhartha and Sujatha, the female devotee who, with great reverence to fulfil a vow she had made, had offered Siddhartha his last meal before he attained enlightenment. The heinous blasphemy Samanthabadra committed, which deeply hurt millions of Buddhists, makes insignificant and pales the seriousness of similar blasphemous acts which have already met legal reprisals.

Punishment should be meted in equal measure by the hand that enforces it. The Attorney General’s office hasn’t still moved against Samanthabadra in the manner in which it has moved against Jerome Fernando and the others. It’s best not to tarry.

Or else, it will be asked why the sword of justice is raised against the self-proclaimed prophet Jerome and not against this self-proclaimed Arahant Samanthabadra, both of whom seem to suffer from delusions of grandeur with a stock of profanities to strew like confetti.

The question must be raised, as raised by SUNDAY PUNCH two weeks ago: Why has Samanthabadra’s perverse slur on the character of Buddhism’s founder, who is also worshipped by millions of Hindus as the 10th avatar of Lord Vishnu, still gone ignored at the Attorney General’s Office? Is the AG’s sword sheathed ‘lest the dew will rust it’?

As for Jerome, he can praise the idol of his faith to high heavens if he must. No issue. None will get hurt by that. It’s only when he debunks the hallowed faith of others and condemns them as children of a lesser God that the hurt begins to cut deep.

Excess zeal leads doctor to robe Aukana Buddha An excess of religious zeal had made an ayurvedic doctor drape Lanka’s famed sculptural wonder, the 1600-year standing Aukana Buddha statue, with a forty-foot-long robe to make it appear in his eyes ‘like a living Buddha’. Public outrage broke out last Monday when photographs showing the world famous statute, kitted up in bright red robes, appeared on social media. It shocked Buddhists to see the icon of their faith distorted in this manner and angered archaeologists and art connoisseurs alike to see a work of noble art desecrated. The 38-foot tall Aukana Buddha was long held to be the tallest stand-alone statue in Lanka until the derelict Maligawila statue which had fallen to the ground was re-erected in the early 1990s and found to be a few inches taller. FOLLY OF IGNORANCE: How one man’s misplaced faith made a mockery of a noble work of Buddhist art King Dathusena built the Aukana statue in the 5th century AD on the banks of the Kala Wewa to coincide with the commissioning of the reservoir. The statute remains a sculptural masterpiece with the lines of the robe delicately etched by expert artistic hands. It did not need a philistine hand to ‘paint the lily or gild refined gold’. It’s a cultural treasure, an object of antiquity protected under the Archeological Act. The Department of Archaeology warned last Monday that modifying a statue of archaeological significance is subject to legal consequences. Violation of the Act carries a fifty thousand rupee fine or a five-year jail term or both. On a complaint filed by the department’s officials at the Galnawe Police station, the police have taken into their custody the robe and a pair of giant slippers which the ayurvedic doctor had thoughtfully provided as footwear to go with the robe. But misplaced zeal in rites and rituals often replace the diligence required to follow the Dhamma. And this ignorant ayurvedic doctor, ignorant of the true teachings of the Buddha and ignorant of the secular laws of the land, allowed excessive zeal get the better of him. The unregistered ayurvedic practitioner, Leon Amaranath from Wattala, had this to say in his defence: ‘I had been doing Katina Pinkamas like this for the last ten years. I have offered robes to Sri Maha Bodhi, Ruwanwelisaya, and Thanthirimale Maha Saya. This time I thought of offering the new robe to the Aukana Buddha to make it like a living Buddha. Therefore, two weeks ago, I contacted the Aukana temple’s viharadhipathi on the phone and discussed my intention with him. He did not object. Therefore, I robed the statue on Poya day. I haven’t done anything wrong.’ This act of folly is akin to a doctor who, in ridiculous excess of medical faith in antibiotics, prescribes a deadly overdose of penicillin to a patient to grant him a speedier recovery. Beware. Too much of a good thing can not only be hazardous to health but prove fatal. The middle path is still the best.

Equally poor or equally rich? Options from two extremesJVP leader Anura Kumara Dissanayake told a party district convention in Kegalle last Sunday that if his party comes to power it will introduce a political culture whereby all politicians will be made to travel in public transport such as buses and trains.‘You may have seen politicians in other countries travel in buses, trains, bicycles and public transport and work abreast with people. We will create that political culture and transformation. We will assure you that.’ JVP’S ANURA: Equally poor He said, ‘JVP MPs had never used police personnel for their private security’ but failed to say whether JVP MPs presently use public transport to travel to attend to their public or personal affairs. The plan, of course, is nothing new. The same old battered, worn-out, hackneyed and now discarded political and economic Marxist doctrine still touted by the JVP—as their forefathers had done half a century ago—as the addictive opium to induce an inferiority-ridden class with the promise of creating a utopian classless society by making everyone equally poor. If you shun this leftist extreme, fear not, help is at hand. There’s an alternative right wing extreme available in the market. It comes from the latest political party in town, entertaining presidential ambitions even before it has stepped out of its bassinet. Called the Mawbima Janatha Party it’s led by media owner of Ada Derana TV, Dilith Jayaweera. MJ’S DILITH: Equally rich Its manifesto holds the more positive and ambitious aim of creating the right utopian condition to make all equally rich. A rich man’s paradise where everyone’s a car owner and everyone’s a homeowner to boot. The party has drawn up a timetable and says it can even forecast the date. Mawbima Janatha leader Jayaweera addressing a party district convention at a hotel in Kalutara last week said: ‘We intend to transform this country into one where everyone can be a car owner and a home owner. We are preparing a schedule with dates so that youth who have migrated will return home.’ The aim, of course, is nothing new either. It’s the same old rehashed gospel of hope with the tempting bait of economic prosperity for all, cast by right-wing parties across the world to catch the voter hook, line and sinker at elections. Out of the two options the JVP promise seems much easier to fulfil. Making the minute rich equally poor with the vast majority of those languishing in poverty can be done overnight with one swift stroke of legal quill. But to make more than two-thirds of those below the poverty belt equally rich will certainly demand a miracle. Social justice is not about condemning all to a stagnating well nor of making everyone rich. Social justice is about levelling the ground and creating an equal playing field for all to rise above their positions by their own efforts and merits.