Another interpretation (untested) of what you might have intended: 
my %dont_want = map {$_=>undef} @columns;
while (<$file>){
  my @arr = split;
  print @arr[map {!exists $dont_want{$_}}0..$#arr],"\n";

}

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     Syntactic sugar causes cancer of the semicolon.        --Alan Perlis

In reply to Re: cut columns with an array slice by NetWallah
in thread cut columns with an array slice by coldy

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