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• It’s a wrap as last man left to pay, SDIG Nilantha pays up on final day

The long-drawn battle waged by Malcom Cardinal Ranjith to bring justice to his people killed or maimed in the Easter Sunday blast and led by President’s Counsel Shamil Perera in the Supreme Court finally ended on Monday when the last man left to pay his share for the consequences of his negligence paid up and walked out of Court, a free man.

Last month, when the Attorney General informed Court that the Senior DIG of former Chief of State Intelligence, Nilantha Jayawardena, was the only one left to pay his share of the total compensation due to Black Easter tragedy victims as ordered by the Supreme Court last year, the seven-judge bench headed by the Chief Justice had initiated contempt proceedings against him. He was asked to show cause as to why the Supreme Court should not impose punishment on him on October 7.

SDIG Nilantha had already paid 10 million of the 75 million rupees he had been ordered to pay in January last year by the Supreme Court as his share. The rest of the infamous five, found guilty of negligence for their collective failure to avert the Easter Sunday bomb blasts despite the warning from Indian intelligence of impending attacks on churches and hotels, included former President Maithripala, who was, during this period, away in Singapore for a full medical checkup.

Maithripala Sirisena had been ordered to pay Rs. 100 million, while former Defence Secretary Hemasiri Fernando Rs. 50 million for his negligence, the former IGP Pujitha Jayasundera, a hefty Rs. 75 million, and former Chief of National Intelligence, Sisira Mendis, Rs. 10 million.

Maithripala had pleaded poverty and said he would have to beg near Pettah’s Bo tree to raise the necessary money to escape a long spell in prison. With his multi-millionaire stepbrother Dudley swiftly washing his hands of the affair, saying he saw no earthly reason why he should pay even a red cent towards Maithripala’s debt, perhaps the people were deeply moved to see their former president fallen on wretched time, bereft of help from kith and kin.

Perhaps it made charity warm the cockles of their hearts, enough to spur them on to dash and chip in and soon make his till box jangle with coins worth a hundred million rupees or more. For how else could a man who had pleaded poverty last January miraculously pay by way of instalments his enormous hundred million liability to court? As if he were a businessman settling in instalments his bank overdraft?

FLASHBACK TO 2019 EASTER SUNDAY BLAST: The Cardinal praying for the victims in the aftermath of the Easter tragedy

So had IGP Pujitha and SDIG Nilantha pleaded the same reasons of poverty. In the case of Pujitha and Hemasiri, they had been remanded earlier on October 9, 2019 for their alleged failure to prevent the Easter Sunday attacks despite receiving prior warnings. On February 18, 2022, both were acquitted by the High Court trial-at-bar when the judges unanimously observed that the prosecution should have been more cautious when framing charges against state officials in a situation where there is no sufficient evidence.

In 2023, when the Supreme Court passed judgement against them for violating human rights, they were in no mood for a repeat spell in prison, remanded or otherwise, should they fail to pay up their share of compensation to the Easter blast victims as ordered by the Court. Hemasiri Fernando swiftly settled his share. Alas, for Pujitha, he found he had no means.

However, when August approached, he, too, had miraculously paid up the required Rs. 75 million in full. So had Sisira Mendis settled in full his Rs. 10 million much earlier, leaving last man Nilantha Jayewardene to face the Supreme Court alone on contempt charges.

On October 10, when the case was called, it turned out that SDIG Nilantha Jayawardena, who had so far paid only Rs. 10 million, had paid that day the balance of Rs. 65 million to the Office of Reparations as set up by the Supreme Court. Nilantha Jayawardena apologised to the Court for his undue delay and confessed his close friends—what are friends for—had come to his rescue and coughed up the money to save him from prison. Finally, it was ‘all’s well that ends well’, as the Supreme Court closed the last remaining case of the former SDIG Nilantha Jayawardena and set him free.

However, the Supreme Court rescheduled the case for November 18 to review the compensation distribution scheme for victims of the Easter blast tragedy. A three-judge bench will consider the methods used to disburse compensation to ensure justice for the victims and their families. President’s Counsel Shamil Perera, representing the Cardinal, requested the Court to provide a list of the victims who had received compensation so far.

It was a fitting end to a five-year battle, with earthly justice finally brought home to the families of those who died and to those maimed in the Easter Sunday carnage.

Nilantha and the rest of the infamous five—four of whom had been discharged earlier by court—may have walked free on Monday and headed home to join his wife and family, thanking his god or gods for finally relieving him of the immense tension and stress that had assailed his nightly sleep and wakeful hours. He will probably close the disturbing chapter and turn a new page in his life to forget the blot in his copybook.

But for the families of those who died, and for all those injured and maimed, as they fervently prayed with faith and hope on bended knees in church that Blessed Easter day, can these unfortunate folk ever be relieved of mourning grief and lasting pain when memories of those who died an innocent and needless death, and the unhealing scars of grievous wounds endured by those left maimed serve only to now bleed afresh, force them to ask the question why, why in God’s name didn’t they act to avert this bloody sacrilege?

The guilty men who now walk free, relieved they cleansed in court their sin, relieved they’ve rinsed their blood-stained hands, believe they are redeemed of guilt and now art free, and by paying a court-levied collective fee, may still fear to hear the knock of Nemesis at their door.

The cow and croc, the bat and mouse and fly, all fly high on the ballot cardHeavens, what a prospect! All creatures great and small get an equal chance to be top of the pops at the polls this year. What with the cow and croc, the bat and mouse, and even the common house fly flying high on the ballot card, the sky is the limit for ambitions to soar. But more down to earth were five political parties, including the UNP, in the Ranil-led alliance still carrying the cross of defeat: the symbolic gas cylinder. It may have served as a gaunt symbol to remind the people of the recent terrible dark days of despair, the period they will rather forget to remember in gratitude or not or treasure in grateful remembrance the advent of a Saviour who brought deliverance to all from its evil high cost by miraculously slashing its exorbitant price. The symbolic telephone, which the Sajith-led SJB still retained in the hope that one more trunk call to the people from it will finally connect and successfully be answered. Strange, for a party that swears by the digital age, should cling to an anti-diluvian relic in a country where millions of people have switched to mobile phones. Yet it bagged the second largest vote haul of 32 percent to Anura’s 42. Luckily for Anura, he had shed his old Marxist scythe and sickle and opted for the more hip NPP compass to guide him to the winning post. As for the rest, the also-rans, for them the crumbs in this mass race. Joining this lot is Pohottuwa’s barren, unopening bud, which Namal tries his best to bloom in Hambantota’s arid dust and the soil of the other 21 districts, while he himself has opted to stay out of the contest, fearing, perhaps, that this time, too, as in the disastrous presidential poll, it will not bloom for him again. Seld-sentenced to the knacker’s yard, where racehorses beyond their prime are sent to grass, are the growing breed of politicians who have finally realised it’s time to call it a day. Far better to gracefully retire, citing old age as a convenient excuse, than shamefully be booted out by the electorate. Though some are genuinely bent on calling it quits, some shrink at the dismal prospect of defeat. Those who have sought refuge at this home for the aged, include Ranil Wickremesinghe, Mahinda Rajapaksa, Lakshman Kiriella, Bandula Gunawardena, and A.H.M. Fowzie. The irrepressible Ranil, who has announced that though he will neither contest nor seek entry to Parliament through the National List, will still guide the UNP from self-exile while watching old repeats of the hit series of ‘Designated Survivors’  or ‘House of Card’ on Netflix, even as he did after the party’s debacle in 2020’s general elections. Mahinda has already handed his torch for his son to bear, while Kiriella in uptown Kandy has passed his dwindling flame to his lawyer daughter to fuel anew the fire. Others, like Champika Ranawaka and the ranting Wimal Weerawansa, have taken realistic stock and decided that the wiser course is to make a strategic retreat than naively dare and die in the forthcoming election hustings. So will JVP’s General Secretary, Tilvin, not contest or be named on the National List but ‘devote his time to party affairs. Bad show if the party secretary loses, isn’t it? By Friday’s noon deadline, 690 nominations from political and independent parties had been handed over and accepted as eligible to contest the polls. To all runners in this islandwide 22-district race, we wish them the best of success. Yet it is best to remember: ‘The race is not to the swift nor the battle to the strong, but time and chance happeneth to them all.’

By Jove! Postal Service issues stamps of Harini and VijithaEverybody’s human after all and has his or her own vanities. Politicians are no different, and some are the vainest on earth, as vain as the emperor was in his new clothes. It makes them easy prey for sycophantic state officials to exploit and gain undue benefits for themselves.Mahinda Rajapaksa’s swing door salon was packed to the brim for his vanity, making him a soft target for flattering political vultures to scrounge for tenders without pause. His vanity also let the Chinese entrap Lanka in debt by granting generous loans to finance his vanity projects. But the vanity bubble burst when sycophants saw there was nothing more to gain, and turning coat, they quickly flew in droves as bats desert the fruitless tree. No wonder Pope Gregory listed vanity or vainglory as one of the deadly sins in his catalogue of vices. VANITY STAMP HONOUR: Harini and Vijitha get special commemorative stamps issued of themselves at the World Postal Day celebrations by the beaming Postal Department staff Imagine the surprise both Harini and Vijitha received when they attended as guests of honour the 150th World Postal Day celebrations hosted by the Postal Department: Two vanity commemorative stamps of Harini and Vijitha, specially printed and issued to mark the occasion. Some bright spark at the Postal Department may have thought that by playing to the vanities these two caretaker cabinet ministers, raw novices hardly out of their bassinet in the public sector, he would earn rich rewards in time to come, since fawning on politicians never did fail to do the trick. But he had failed to take into account the new maxim in town: ‘Waste not, want not.’ Fearing the department would be in hot water, it swiftly issued clarification the following day. Though it laboured to say, ‘Two personalised souvenirs, including stamps with the images of Harini Amarasuriya and Vijitha Herath, were presented to them as chief guests of the event. These personalised stamps fall under the commemorative stamp category and are intended solely as souvenirs. These stamps are not official postage stamps and will not be used for mailing purposes; it cut no ice. It went against the grain of what the JVP had constantly been harping against Ministers of successive governments, spending public money to promote themselves and public officials spending money on useless ventures to curry favour with ministers, as if the money is from their family chest. As the JVP said before the elections, they will tell the people exactly on what item their taxed income was spent. Can they list two commemorative vanity stamps issued to honour two ministers as a justifiable expenditure of public money? Now that the JVP is in power, the Minister of Posts Vijitha Herath must order an immediate inquiry and take stern disciplinary action against the culprit or culprits responsible for this gross indulgence on the people’s hard-earned money. Lest the public accuse the new government of wastage and angrily declare: ‘Nothing has changed except the people in power under the much-hyped system change.’