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©The Sunday Star (Used by permission)
by C.S. Nathan

ecalling bad memories: Rajeshvari talking about her experience at the Lenggeng Immigration depot. With her is her son Logekali and Raju.

SEREMBAN: Young mother M. Rajeshvari spent 11 agonising months at the Lenggeng Immigration depot for illegals – all because she could not recall her identity card number and was not fluent in Bahasa Malaysia.

The 22-year-old, who was six months pregnant then, was waiting for a relative at a coffeeshop in Brickfields, Kuala Lumpur, when a raiding police party asked to see her identification card. She could not because she had lost it. Worse, she also forgot the IC number.

With only primary school education and speaking a smattering of Bahasa Malaysia, she failed to convince the authorities she was Malaysian. They suspected her to be a Sri Lankan immigrant.

Making matters worse, she could only give the officers sketchy details of her background.

Rajeshvari, who is from Penang and was jobless when she was detained, was later produced in court and eventually sent to the depot in Lenggeng in October last year.

She was unable to seek help from relatives because of estranged family ties. Her family members also did not attempt to look for her.

She was finally released from the detention camp on Friday evening, carrying her 10-month-old son Logekali.

Rajeshvari’s lucky release happened because a staff member at a clinic where Logekali was treated for food poisoning last week had alerted Malaysian Indian Youth Council vice-president Andrew Raju.

“After my arrest, I kept telling the authorities I was Malaysian but no one believed me,” said a tearful Rajeshvari.

Raju, when met outside the depot, said the officers did not pursue her case further as Rajeshvari could not give the right IC number or her parents’ address.

“In the beginning, I also had a hard time checking her out because the information she gave turned out to be dead ends, until she recalled her primary school,” he said.

Raju then contacted the school’s principal in Kampar in Perak, who managed to trace Rajeshvari’s birth certificate number.

Raju then went to the National Registration Department in Putrajaya to get a letter confirming Rajeshvari’s citizenship.

“It has been stressful running around to the various departments. But it is worth it when both mother and son are finally free,” he said.

Rajeshvari said she wanted to put the nightmare behind and start afresh with her baby.

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