Sunday, March 30, 2008

Samy Vellu calls for release of Hindraf 5

KUALA LUMPUR: MIC president Datuk Seri S. Samy Vellu on Sunday asked the government to release the five Hindu Rights Action Force (Hindraf) leaders under detention, saying two of them should be freed sooner because one was ill and the other was now an elected representative.

He said R. Kenghadaran, 40, "is very sick" and M. Manoharan, 46, had won a seat in the March 8 general election. Manoharan had won the Kota Alam Shah state seat in Selangor on a DAP ticket.

Samy Vellu also said that V. Ganabatirau, 34, and K. Vasantha Kumar, 34, had not been very much involved in the massive rally organised by the unregistered Hindraf in Kuala Lumpur on Nov 25 last year, which was a reason for the five to be detained under the Internal Security Act (ISA).

The fifth Hindraf leader under detention is P. Uthayakumar.

The MIC president spoke at a news conference after opening a workshop on "Rebranding the MIC" attended by the party's 150 divisional leaders, here.

"I will raise it (the issue of their release) with the Prime Minister (Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi) after he returns from Sabah," he said. -- Bernama

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