Abusive exchange in languages they didn't understand

Three Sudanese nationals, including a 60-year-old woman, got into an argument with a 50-year-old female lawyer in the magistrate court complex on Nrupathunga Road on Monday, triggering an exchange of choicest abuses between the two sides in their native tongues. Police had to intervene and detain the Sudanese nationals as well as the Indian.

It all began when Moha Mohammad, the Sudanese woman, brushed against Lalitha Mary as she entered the lift on the ground floor. Moha had come to the court, along with two compatriots, Ahmed Terai and Ahmed Mohammed Moosa, to give a deposition in a case. Mary, a lawyer herself, was rushing to attend to her own case.

Mary did not take kindly to the brush of the Sudanese and asked her whether she was blind. The Sudanese, who didn’t follow a word of Mary’s, got offended and made a caustic retort, in her native tongue. Mary didn’t follow a word either but responded in kind. Soon, the two women started trading barbs, in their respective native tongues. The argument escalated to a ruckus. Terai, Moosa and Moha’s lawyer joined in, making for an ugly spectacle. The two parties almost got into fisticuffs.

But before the situation could worsen, police personnel on court duty arrived and took all of them to the jurisdictional Halasuru Gate police station. They opened a non-cognisable report (NCR) case against both the parties and let them off with a warning and some advice.