A police report has been lodged against Hindu Rights Action Force (Hindraf) legal adviser P Uthayakumar by the movement’s secretary T Vasanthakumar over allegations of misuse of funds.

Both Uthayakumar (left) and Vasanthakumar are presently being detained under the Internal Security Act along with three other Hindraf legal advisers at the Kamunting detention centre in Perak.

It is learnt that in the police report which was lodged at the detention centre on Thursday, Vasanthakumar has accused Uthayakumar of allegedly misusing money collected from the public for Hindraf activities.

Uthayakumar’s lawyer N Surendran however when contacted said that the police report and accusation thrown against his client should not be taken seriously.

“Vasanthakumar (photo) had lodged the police report under detention and given the circumstances, his accusations cannot be taken seriously as it has no credentials or credibility,” he said in a phone conversation.

Explaining, Surendran said that “Vasanthakumar could have been manipulated by the authorities to lodge the police report after being subjected to severe stress.”

Part of the government conspiracy

Surendran also associated Vasanthakumar’s accusations with previous government efforts to discredit Hindraf through similar claims.

“As we all know, Hindraf has been accused by the Inspector General of Police (IGP) Musa Hasan of collecting funds from the public to supposedly finance activities of a terrorist organisation overseas.

“And yet he has not come out with any evidence to support his claim. I believe this is a clear effort by the authorities to discredit and weaken the support towards Hindraf,” he said.

The IGP on Dec 6 last year had accused Hindraf of soliciting support and financial aid from the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, a Sri Lankan Tamil fundementalist terrorist organisation.

Uthayakumar in retaliation had filed a RM100 million defamation lawsuit two weeks ago against the IGP, the Attorney-General and the Malaysian government for allegedly misleading the public when the three linked him and Hindraf with LTTE.

“So as you can see, the accusations are centered on allegations of fund embezzlement. They cannot support their claim that Hindraf is linked with LTTE, they try to bring us down through another accusation,” said Surendran.

Hindraf halts donation drive

On a related development, Hindraf chairperson P Waythamoorth – presently lobbying support for the movement from his temporary base in London – said in a statement today that Hindraf’s name was being misused by individuals to collect funds from the people.

He said that large sums of funds were collected in Hindraf’s name by these unauthorised persons and that these funds were never channeled to Hindraf.

“In these circumstances we immediately urge all supporters and well wishers of Hindraf to immediately suspend collection of funds from members of the public either privately or publicly pending further instructions,” he said.

“In the interim we urge all well wishers and supporters to continue to offer prayers nationwide for the immediate release of the ISA detainees,” he added.