Street Justice Vs Queens Justice

July 28, 2014

We live in a cheaters paradise. Often the cheater, the embezzler, is
rewarded for his crime. Women who cannot find suitors often get caught to
young handsome men who reply their advertisements, or receive
responses to their own advertisements and in their frustration and their
inability to find a suitor, they fall head-over-heels and marry or get
engaged to the handsome young man who might be even younger than
the bride. The time that it takes to show the true colours of the young
alentino depends on how gullible the bride is. !ooner or later the bride
finds that all her wealth, every cent she has saved for her dowry, has
disappeared with the alentino. The sob stories of these women appear in
the media, but more and more women get duped.
This is true in the case of "ob agents too. They promise greener pastures
abroad and millions of rupees are collected by these swindlers, while the
innocent men and women sell or mortgage their properties to raise the
monies to be given to these #ob $gents, who without hesitating, swindle
them. $ list of the manner in which !ri %ankans are cheated runs long. &o
amount of publicity, no amount of media coverage would stop the
swindlers from collecting money on the promise of taking the unsuspecting
to the shores of $ustralia. 'ven though there is an intense campaign by
the $ustralian (overnment, to stop these illegal immigrants from stepping
onto soil down under, yet, trawler loads of people leave the shores of !ri
%anka e)pecting a change, for which they would risk even their lives.
!imilarly, commercial transactions, where people borrow money on interest
and give che*ues as collateral security, in the mind of the lenders becomes
criminal transactions and instead of filing civil cases, to recover the
monies, depending on the influence they wield, they run to the police
station and get the police to arrest the borrowers for not honouring their
obligation to repay the loan and a criminal case is filed.
The statement they make to the police is absolute baloney as they are
instructed by the police or by the lawyers not to mention that the monies
were borrowed on interest and that it was a pure and simple civil
transaction and the correct procedure would be to file a civil action. +y the
time the civil action is decided, the inflation would reduce the original sum
lent to half its value and even if a writ is issued, the borrower would not
have any property worth seizing. Therefore, in order to get this money
without any delay the lender uses the ,agistrates -ourt to terrorize the
borrower, the failure to honour his monetary obligation would mean that
the borrower would be remanded. .emanding is a tool that could be used
to soften the borrower in accepting the terms and conditions, often spelt
out by the lender with the police. The tough, unyielding borrower becomes
an emollient and macerate with the threat of being incarcerated in the
foulest conditions behind the bars of the .emand /rison.
0s this fair or "ust1 What is the difference between a street mugger who
points a gun at you, robs you of your earnings or, an e)tortionist who
would come to your doorstep and take protection money from you or, the
local underworld thug who comes to your doorstep, threatens you with
death and relieves you of your money from your wardrobe1
The only difference would be that in the cases enumerated by me, the
criminal has no legal or moral right to the monies or the properties he
takes away from you but the person is claiming the monies which he has
lent.
0n these matters, it is well known that in some cases, where the monies
have been given, were monies that had been induced by false pretense
and in some cases the victim has been swayed by the charlatans to part
with their hard earned money. Whether it is !akviti .anasinghe, in a ,acro
style pyramid scheme, or %alith 2otalawala in a ma"or scam, the resultant
position is the same. The only difference is that one is in remand shouting
e)pletives and pretending to be mentally unsound and the other in a
palatial residence and moves around on a wheel chair where attendants
wait on him and a few honourable men, who could not face the disgrace of
not being able to pay their debts, had committed suicide.
The reality of these crooks, charlatans and deceivers have made
,agistrates take firm and punitive action against them to bring "ustice and
relief to the aggrieved persons. +ut, can this be called 3ueens #ustice or is
it more akin to the summary "ustice and the street "ustice which every
civilized person must loath1 $lmost every day in many corners of the
island, ,agistrates will not hear any defence, e)cept a plea that the
defaulter is willing to pay the money in a few installments. The carrot of
freedom, from being incarcerated in remand, is dangled out to them in
order to bring relief to the complainants. The suspects get conditional bail
and the complainant goes home e)pecting to receive his money on the
ne)t day. !ometimes thing go horribly wrong when the swindler finds that
he has no money to pay back the installment that he promised to -ourt
and obtained conditional bail. The -ourt then, on the basis that the
suspect has violated the condition on which he was granted bail, re-
remands the accused.
What is important is that no one, neither the lawyers nor their clients ever
pondered that this method of collecting monies from suspects is permitted
under our law. 0f these methods are not permitted, but yet, in the name of
"ustice, where a poor person had been left high and dry after lending
money to the suspect, who had virtually swindled the money, the former
should benefit and the swindler should suffer, could be the argument put
forward by people who find a simple method of delivering what is "ust to
their mind.
0f this was so, any matter could be resolved by the methods adopted by
the 4(od 5ather in the famous novel written by ,ario /uzo. When there
was in"ustice, the people approached the ,afia -hief to deliver "ustice and
"ustice was delivered within a very short time and it is known that the (od
5ather delivered it. +ut, civilisation denounces such arbitrary, capricious
methods of "ustice. -ourts of %aw are established and -ourts would deliver
"ustice not according to any other norm, but according to %aw.
This anomaly has been now corrected by #ustice $.W.$. !alam, /resident
of the -ourt of $ppeal and another outstanding #udge, !unil .a"apakse.
$pparently, the complainant has reported to the respective police that a
sum of .s. 6 million has been cheated by the suspect. Thereafter, on a
warrant the suspect was arrested and produced in -ourt and was
remanded on un-proven allegation that he had strived to interfere with the
witnesses. The suspect had filed a motion through his lawyer and has
undertaken to pay .s.788,8889: and the balance in ;< instalments of
.s.<88,8889: each. The ,agistrate has then disregarded the original
rationale of remand for interfering with witnesses and had granted bail and
then he ordered the suspect to file an $ffidavit incorporating the
undertaking. The suspect thereafter petitioned the =igh -ourt which
disregarded the averments contained in the petition and refused any
relief.
>-ontd. ne)t week?
Posted by Thavam