Dr. Shafi’s Family Fires Back with Ran Dhoni

Colombo’s literary crowd got more than just a book launch at the International Book Fair this week — they got a public reckoning. When veteran journalist Suranga Senanayake unveiled Ran Dhoni, the story of the daughter of Dr. Shiabdeen Mohamed Shafi, the hall buzzed with a sense of justice long delayed.

Remember 2019? Sri Lanka’s gossip machine went into overdrive with the wild claim that Dr. Shafi, a respected doctor, had secretly sterilized thousands of women. The story tore through media headlines, fuelled by politicians hungry for Sinhala-Buddhist votes, amplified by certain TV talking heads, and rubber-stamped by officials who should have known better.

It was a witch hunt, plain and simple. A man’s career was ruined. A family was hounded. Neighbours turned suspicious. Crowds jeered. And all the while, those in power played their dirty games — stoking communal fire while hiding their own scandals.

Now, six years later, the tables are turning. At the launch, Dr. Shafi stood beside his wife and daughter, no longer just the victims of a smear, but the faces of survival. The presence of heavyweights — from Minister Nalinda Jayatissa to Tilvin Silva, Bimal Ratnayake, publishing giants like Rajiv Gunasena, and even the once-embattled Shani Abeysekara — gave the event the air of a symbolic trial.

And the unspoken verdict? Those who orchestrated the false charges stand exposed.

As one attendee whispered after the applause: “The men who spread that lie should be dragged into the open and asked, how many women did you really sterilize? Not in hospitals — but in the trust the people had in truth.”

This is the real gossip sting — that the so-called protectors of the nation knowingly destroyed an innocent man’s life for politics. Today, the book Ran Dhoni doesn’t just tell a daughter’s story. It throws back the shame at the liars, the power-hungry, and the cowardly who let the lie fester.

For once, the stage belonged to the wronged. And those who built their careers on his suffering? They were the ghosts in the back row, watching their old script burn.