Wrongly detained Malay Indian mother demands apology from immigration body chief

Kuala Lumpur, Sept.17 : A young Malay Indian mother who was wrongly detained by the Malaysian immigration authorities for nearly eleven months, is now demanding an apology from the department's director-general.

M. Rajeshvari, who was recently released from the Lenggeng Immigration Detention Center, has relayed her demand through Perak Health, Environment and Human Resources Committee chairman A. Sivanesan, as she is not fluent in Bahasa Malaysia.

Sivanesan told reporters in Ipoh that demand had been forwarded to the Immigration Department's Director General, Mahmud Adam, a fortnight ago, but he has been "dead silent" on the matter.

"There is no apology, offer of compensation or visit to her Kampar house to explain her wrongful detention," he told reporters yesterday.

It was reported that Rajeshvari spent 11 agonizing months at the detention center because she could not recall her MyKad number and was not fluent in Bahasa Malaysia.

The 22-year-old, who was six months pregnant then, and was waiting for a relative at a coffee shop in Brickfields, Kuala Lumpur, when a raiding police party asked to see her MyKad.

She failed to produce her MyKad as she had lost it.

Noting that Rajeshvari planned to sue the department, The Star quoted Sivanesan, as saying that the police officer and immigration department officer involved in her arrest and subsequent detention should come forward and explain.

Urging the department to check all detention depots in the country, Sivanesan said he feared that Rajeshvari's case could be just the tip of the iceberg.

Ipoh Barat MP M. Kulasegaran, who was also present, said when Rajeshvari was charged in court, she was not given an interpreter who could converse in Tamil nor was she given any legal representation.

ANI