SOME were there long before sunrise, to catch TT Durai’s first moments as a free man.
But after a five-hour vigil, reporters and photographers crowding the gates of Queenstown Remand Prison began to feel like members of the Samuel Beckett Play “Waiting for Godot”.
Perhaps more so for ST photographer Shahriya Yahaya. He had been standing outside Queenstown Remand Prison since 5.45 am!
Was the former National Kidney Foundation chief, having served two-thirds of his three-month sentence for using a fake invoice to cheat the charity (taking into account time off for good behaviour), going to make an appearance?
Or would he - like the famed fictional character Godot - fail to show?
Then, just as we were beginning to think the tip-offs on his release were untrue, we caught a glimpse of a black labrador behind the heavy iron gates.
Three police officers with three labradors – a gold and two black – each appeared behind the gate with the dogs. They were sniffing in the drains and in the bushes there – the dogs, not the men, that is.
And at 10.43 am – almost 5 hours for Shah – out stepped THE man from a distant building within.
Gone was his immaculate jet black hair. In its place, a salt-and-pepper crew-cut, on a visibly thinner frame.
Durai nonetheless strolled confidently towards the prison gates.
Dressed in a long sleeved white shirt and dark grey dress pants, a smiling Durai, standing tall, thanked the guards.
“May I shake your hand?” he asked the warden.
Reporters were not so lucky.
In the style of American celebrity Paris Hilton when she was released from prison after violating a driving ban, serving around half of a 45-day sentence for violating probation on a driving ban in California, Durai had a burly guy who kept photographers and reporters at bay. Like Paris' bodyguards, the macho man quickly bundled his charge into a waiting black Paris-like Hyundai Tucson, which sped off, leaving the media in the dust.
After a five-hour wait, that's not hot.
The burly guard keeps the media at bay.
ST Photo: Shahriya Yahaya
Read the full story and watch his release here.