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©The Sun (Used by permission)
by Charles Ramendran, R. Surenthira Kumar and Tamarai Chelvi

• Hindraf leaders seek revision of restraining order
• Another 6 Hindraf supporters charged

SHAH ALAM (Nov 29, 2007): Two people linked to the Hindu Rights Action Force (Hindraf) rally last Sunday (Nov 25) were re-arrested by police today.

A senior member of Hindraf, lawyer V.S. Ganapathi Rao, was re-arrested in his house in Shah Alam early today.

It is learnt that a 15-man police team from Negri Sembilan arrived at about 7.45am to serve the arrest warrant.

Lawyer M.Manoharan, also a senior member of Hindraf, said Ganapathi was detained under the Sedition Act for allegedly uttering seditious words during a forum in Seremban on Nov 17.

He said Ganapathi was taken to the Negri Sembilan police headquarters for questioning and was released at 3.30pm on police bail. It was the second time Ganapathi was arrested.

Last Friday (Nov 23), Ganapathi and Hindraf members P. Uthayakumar and P. Waythamoorthy were arrested and charged under the Sedition Act with allegedly uttering words to incite hatred, in their speeches in Tamil in a gathering in Batang Berjuntai, Selangor, on Nov 16.

On Monday (Nov 26), Klang sessions court judge Zunaidah Mohd Idris gave them a discharge not amounting to an acquittal. She held that the charge appeared to be ambiguous because the prosecution failed to provide original transcripts of the Tamil speeches.

Yesterday, the Attorney-General’s Chambers applied for a revision of the court’s decision.

In the Selayang magistrate’s court today, Parti Keadilan Rakyat supreme council member N. Gobalakrishnan, was re-arrested right after he posted bail. He was charged yesterday with being in an illegal assembly in front of Sri Subramaniam Temple in Batu Caves at 3am last Sunday, where he was first arrested.

It is learnt that he was arrested by the Gombak police today, in relation to a case in 2004 for failing to turn up for a court hearing in Penang. The Gombak police handed him to the Northeast District Police in Penang, which issued the arrest warrant.

Hindraf leaders seek revision of restraining order

KUALA LUMPUR (Nov 29, 2007): The chairman and legal advisers of the Hindu Rights Action Force (Hindraf) have filed an application for a revision of the restraining order issued by a magistrate’s court to stop them from attending the gathering they organised last Sunday.

The application was filed by lawyer Gobind Singh Deo on behalf of Hindraf chairman P.Waythamoorthy, and legal advisers P.Uthayakumar, V.S.Ganapathi Rao, M.Manoharan and R. Kengabhebharan in the Jalan Duta High Court (Criminal) registry this evening.

The five named the Cheras district police chief (OCPD) as the respondent.

Gobind said there were various technical and substance grounds raised in the application, aimed at setting aside the order and having it declared null and void.

He said the restraining order, issued by the magistrate’s court here on Nov 22 and served to the four on Nov 23, was done mala fides (in bad faith) and not according to the law.

Gobind said the Cheras OCPD’s ex-parte application on Nov 22 on an urgent basis was inaccurate as the police had until Nov 25 to contact the organisers of the assembly.

"The respondents were not given an opportunity to be heard," he told reporters in the court lobby. Also present were Uthayakumar and Manoharan.

He added that even though the matter was academic now, a court ruling was still required on the proper procedures in obtaining such a restraining order.

The police had served the order on the five men and pasted copies in various locations in the city, including near the British High Commission where Hindraf had planned to hold an assembly to hand over a memorandum.

Another 6 Hindraf supporters charged

SELAYANG (Nov 29, 2007): Another six people were charged in a Selayang magistrate’s court here today with being involved in an illegal assembly on Sunday (Nov 25).

They are M. Murugan, 36, V. Loganathan, 23, S. Ravi, 33, G. Vinoth Kumar, 31, R. Vejendran, 27, and K. Raghu, 39.

They were charged, under Section 27 (5) of the Police Act 1967, with being in an illegal assembly in front of Sri Subramaniam Temple in Batu Caves between 1am and 8am last Sunday.

There was also the alternative charge of being part of an assembly which allegedly had the intention of using criminal force to intimidate police officers on duty.

The six claimed trial to the two charges, which were similar to the charges on 40 others in the same court yesterday.

Sessions court judge Hayatul Akmal Abdul Aziz, who sat as magistrate, set bail at RM500 with one surety each.

She ordered them to report to the nearest police station once a month, on the last Saturday of a month. The same conditions were applied to the 40 who were charged yesterday.

Hayatul rejected the defence’s preliminary objection that the charges were flawed – no reason was given – and set April 28 to 30 for a joint trial.

Legal Aid Centre lawyer G.K. Ganesan, who is representing the accused, said they had no intention to disobey any order to restrain the people from approaching the British High Commission on Jalan Ampang on Sunday, as Batu Caves was 15 miles away.

He said they were not part of the rally organised by the Hindu Rights Action Force (Hindraf) in Kuala Lumpur last Sunday.

"Some of the people were going to different places for different purposes," he said.

He told reporters that some of the accused were on their way to weddings while others were at the temple for the Karthigai prayer, which involved lighting oil lamps to dispel darkness.

He said they had wedding cards dated Nov 25 and a prayer receipt from the temple as evidence.

The Hindu Rights Action Force (Hindraf) held the rally to hand a petition to the British High Commission, seeking some RM14 trillion in reparations for the Indian community, whose forebears were brought as indentured labour to Malaya during British colonial times.

More than 10,000 people showed up at the rally in Kuala Lumpur, which did not have a police permit, and the police used water cannon and tear gas to disperse the crowd. Earlier that morning, more than 1,000 protesters went to the Hindu temple in Batu Caves.

Although the protesters did not get to hand the petition to the high commission, the demonstration was also meant to voice their discontent and fight for the rights of the community.

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