Someone who was at the wrong place at the wrong time was assaulted. Now let’s assume, as has been alleged, that Major Chandana Pradeep was not on duty at that moment. Let’s assume that he was engaged in some illegal activity. Let us assume that even though he was an Army Intelligence Officer who could have been carrying out duty-work in off-duty time due to an important development related to the particular brief, he was not doing anything of the sort.
If all of this or even some of it is true then Major
Chandana Pradeep, regardless of his invaluable contribution to the cause of wiping
out terrorism, should be charged on account of his transgressions. Nothing wrong with that. Discipline in discipline. Exceptional performance is not akin to a
credit balance that allows one to use a debit card for transgression.
All this is fine. Above board. Punishable crimes invite inquiry and
punishment. You cross the line and you
are stopped. That’s how it goes in the
Army.
Punishment of transgression, however, is not the preserve of
the Army. It is not only the security
forces that have rules and regulations. Every institution has them. And above all of it is the general law of the
country.
The said Army Major was assaulted. That was news. He said he can’t identify some of his
assailants. That too was news and news that invited a lot of commentary. Why
did he change his story and who or what was behind the change of position? Indeed even the Magistrate hearing the case
asked this question. The Magistrate
wanted the footage from CCTV cameras to be examined by the Police. He even instructed the Police to determine
whether a charge will be filed against the Major for having lied. That too was news.
The main two suspects, Malaka Silva and Rehan Wijeratne,
were enlarged on bail. News. They’re not talked about now. They’ve gone off the news radar
apparently. That’s ‘news’, i.e. not the
fact that they are out of jail but the fact that they’ve gone off the radar.
Whatever the Major was doing or not doing at the JAIC Hilton
that night, he was assaulted. This was
not some kind of attempt to execute a ‘citizens’ arrest’ or a Good Samaritan
act to stop some heinous crime being committed.
The assailants had no business to throw their weight around in the way
they did. Even if Malaka and Rehan did
not throw punches (and they haven’t been cleared of that; the CCTV footage will
establish guilt or innocence), they were present and if they didn’t do it, then
it was their friends, bodyguards or goons who assaulted the Major. It is hard to imagine such minions operating
on their own initiative. They can be
charged, therefore, at best, on grounds of being accessories after the fact of
felony.
The Major is in the news.
That’s deflection. That’s
sweeping issue under the carpet. That is
wrong.
If it is not, then the
constitution must be amended. We can
have a 19th Amendment to the effect that Ministerial Brats (or ‘Privileged
Brats’) have the license to do as they please, including indulge in any act of
thuggery. Something like vehicle permits
for MPs. The Legal Draftsman can put it
down in appropriate language, but we can call it the Double-O Amendment or the
Tiger Amendment, because just like James Bond, 007, had the license to kill, so
did the LTTE. Neither was
constitutional, but it is best to do things ‘within the law’. Then it can be monitored and/or
regulated. Like alcohol and
tobacco. Like certain drugs such as
cannabis in the Netherlands. If such laws existed, then we can't write that someone who was at the wrong place at the wrong time was assaulted. We could have said 'Someone who was at the right place at the right time was rightfully assaulted and justice has prevailed!' We can add 'Hurray!'
For now, though, the news is that Malaka and Rehan are not
newsworthy. That says a lot about the
media.
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