A man’s unemotional confession
The narrative of Don Sumathipala better known as Hithumathe Jeevithe probably has no parallel in real life anywhere in the world. Depending on how they look at it, people may find it repugnant, incredible or admirable but certainly moving.
The gang-rape and murder of an Avurudu Kumari by a politician, the OIC of a police station, a school principal, a businessman and three others in 1972, has in itself much to say of what we call a modern civilised society in a Buddhist country.
The rape victim’s seventeen-year-old brother (Sumathipala, Hithumathe Jeevithe), who discovered the truth of his sister’s disappearance, quietly vows to avenge the deed. Single handed and unwaveringly focused, he breaks out of jail four times and eliminates all of the therapists in his own way.
A television media person in an interview has brought out the events in the man’s (Sumathipala’s) unemotional confession.
Among many dramatic events, sharing a prison cell with two prominent personalities of Sri Lanka, one of whom later while in office acts fast to save the man’s life seems a providential coincidence.
The terrible psychological forces unleashed in a human mind under the given circumstances need to be analysed and it may be possible to understand and forgive this wronged, extraordinary man who has been deprived by society of living a normal life.
Without a doubt, to me, he is a hero.
Nimal Weragama
Gampaha
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