Fall gal Dil
Dilrukshi Dias Wickremesinghe never wanted to be the Bribery Commission’s Director General. She had steadily risen through the ranks at the Solicitor General’s office and was quite happy to be serving as the Deputy Solicitor General when she was handpicked by the new political masters just after the presidential poll last year for the job as the nation’s number one corruption hunter
It was one that would thrust her into the limelight and would win her many powerful enemies. It would also make her place her neck on the line, in the line of selfless public duty.
But then she had the personality, the verve and the force of a German Panzer. She also had the spirit which would fill a container ship and still brim over. And she never could resist a challenge. For nearly twenty two months she slogged away, overtaxed and under resourced, to track down the bribe takers: the corrupt men and women of Lanka.
When the Bribery Commission filed charges against the former defence secretary and three former navy commanders and took them to court on Sept 1st for allegedly causing a Rs 11.4 billion loss to the government, it was the biggest case she had handled since assuming office. But following the President’s speech last week, where a reference was made to the case, she decided to tender her resignation on Tuesday. She need not have done so. But she chose to go. It was accepted the following day.
Thus the nation on Wednesday lost the services of Dilrukshi Dias Wickremesinghe, widely regarded as a strong, incorruptible, brave officer, a person whom the public had grown to trust, respect and adore. It is unfortunate she had to become the fall gal caught up in a political world not her own and it is sad to see her go.