Outside female bravely comes forward to marry prisoner in Magazine Prison ... for a strange reason

Outside female bravely comes forward to marry prisoner in Magazine Prison ... for a strange reason

The wedding which took place yesterday (7) in Magazine Prison was indeed something very special. On this occasion, a 39 year old person serving a sentence of 37 1/2 years at Magazine Prison entered into marriage with a female from outside, aged 41 years.

This marriage becomes something special for the fact that the marriage concerned took effect on a special and queer reason by crushing various barriers in the process. The reason for this was,  the rule

that in order to stand for the rights of a prison inmate, the female concerned should become his wife. In this case, the bride incidentally was an active member of the committee for protecting Rights of Prisoners. As this marriage took place within premises of the prison itself, there was no permission allowed for photographs to be taken. Even though the only photo that was captured was taken by the registrar from his mobile phone; that too had been deleted.

The bride was Sweety Sheline Shamila Buch and she was thus married to Senerath Bandula Liyanaarachchi. The media was not allowed to cover the proceedings of the marriage which was held inside prison and the media thus got a chance of meeting the bride outside prison premises. She had been appearing on behalf of the rights of all prisoners around the island and in the instance she had appeared on behalf of Senerath Bandula the referred to inmate at Magazine Prison, a high officer of the said prison has told her that she has no reason to stand on his behalf. He had added that she could do so if she was Bandula's wife; in order to create a sense of inconvenience for Shamila in this context. Shamila who herself was a spinster had accepted that challenge and had decided to get married to Bandula. Under these circumstances she had sought permission from prison commissioner and many other officers concerned. However she was not fortunate in drawing a positive response. She had strayed for three years in this connection and had finally approached Minister of Prisons, D.A.B. Swaminathan. She was then finally successful in securing the support of the Minister and his officials. A letter too was issued by the ministry ordering that all facilities be provided for this wedding. It is in this way that a date was fixed for the marriage.

Prison officials then allowed the bride to enter the prison; but prohibiting relatives of the family and ladies who brought the jewellery and related items in gaining entrance. Shamila who addressed the media outside the prison said that her bridegroom was permitted to dress himself the sarongs and banians he used to wear when escorted to court, even on this special occasion.

"I was not allowed to take a photograph on this wedding day. My wedding photo is my right. The registrar who registered my marriage captured a photo from his phone. Prison officers asked him to delete even that. No relative was permitted to enter. Every thing was done to the extent of preventing the marriage. Outside in front ... there is a board which says 'prisoners also are human beings'. What should be mentioned below is 'officers are inhumans!'

My husband is a witness who provides eye-witness testimony to the mass murder which took place at Welikada. For this very reason he has become a victim of scoldings, threats and assaults of a special nature. An attempt is being taken to sabotage this marriage because he would get some strength. Not only will I marry him ... I'll stand for him!

From the time he became a witness in this particular case he was transferred to Anuradhapura ... to Kuruvita. He's brought to Magazine Prison from Anuradhapura while standing in the bus.  From today he's my husband. If even a finger is raised at him from today onwards ... beware! in any case I am a lucky wife. I had the fortune to be the wife of a brave Sinhalese!"