It was reported yesterday that one of the officials suspended in connection with the $2.5 million Treasury heist had died mysteriously at his home. Various details about this death, as well as about the official named Ranga Nishantha, are now being circulated on social media.
Below is a note posted on Facebook by a close friend of his.
It is hard not to write a note about Ranga Nishantha.
In the Valuation Department, we didn’t know him as Ranga as much as we knew him as ‘Lapaya’. That was his card. His hometown is Kuliyapitiya. During holidays, rather than studying, his heart was set on going to the village to work in the paddy fields or harvest paddy.
Ranga was consumed by a fever to build the country. That is why he worked day and night, being part of the student union. He spoke very little. Very little. He would only speak when absolutely necessary.
“We can change this, friend. There’s no impossibility in fixing this,” he would sometimes say with a smile. Even though he said it lightly and with a smile, he always believed that this country could be rebuilt.
If there was a picket or a strike, Lapaya was always there. Sanjeewa, carrying a bundle of posters under his arm, meaning Daina, and Lapaya were always seen together near the Kade side of the jungle.
Lapaya was one of those who worked heavily in the student union on campus. He also had a great desire to become chartered. Lapaya was good-hearted. Everyone from the 1996/97 batch at the University of Sri Jayewardenepura said so. Ranga was a person who never stole a cent, never committed fraud.
Later, I heard that he passed a competitive exam and joined the Central Bank or the Treasury.
Why did I suddenly think of writing about Ranga? Ranga is gone.
Some mothers and fathers live for their children. Others live for love. A person who starts a small business after years of hard work lives thinking that his entire life is that business. Another lives for his reputation, for the name he painstakingly built.
People like Ranga live for a purpose. Ranga was an honest person. A person without theft or fraud. Those who associated closely with him, worked with him, studied with him, know that. But the people of this country, political parties, the media, various associations, do not know who Ranga Nishantha was.
Ranga Nishantha was suspended due to the recent financial fraud or scam at the Treasury. As far as I know, it was Ranga who made the first revelation about it.
How does a person feel when, after working their entire life for one purpose, they lose their job and the name they built because of that very purpose? How does that person face the world and society?
Society, meaning us, judges very quickly. “There’s a thief. He must be responsible for that scam. Another thief appointed by the new government.” That is immense pressure. We, watching from the outside, do not feel that pressure. We don’t see that pain. Or we prefer not to see it.
Just think about a social media post or comment insulting you. How much does it hurt your heart? When someone calls you a thief or a fraudster for no reason, how painful is it? Similarly, when a whole country, a whole society, points a finger at once, it is hard to bear. Especially living in front of the media that fabricates lies, it is not easy.
The truth is, the country lost public money through the Treasury. The people have the right to ask about it and to accuse. But who are we to pass judgment without knowing anything?
Didn’t the authorities have the option to conduct an investigation without immediately suspending him, or ask him to resign? Even if politics is a brutal battlefield, such decisions could be justified later, even if not immediately. But what is the point of talking about that now?
We live in a society of Shylocks demanding their pound of flesh.
After someone dies, everyone says good things and writes good things. But this is not that kind of story. It is a genuine feeling about our own person who was with us.
Perhaps people like Ranga are a burden to this society. That might be why Ranga decided to take his own life.
You are good-hearted, one without theft or lies. We say that because we know you. If you ever come by the ‘oil bund’ side again someday, let’s meet. Who knows!!
Farewell, my friend. 🩶
