Ethnic Indians not helping in probe, say Malaysian police (Superseding earlier story)

KUALA LUMPUR - Inspector General Musa Hassan, chief of Malaysian police, Thursday said he was “disappointed” at the lack of cooperation from ethnic Indian politicians in police investigations.

The police chief said an ethnic Indian politician has levelled allegations against another politician of Indian origin of supplying college girls to prominent people for sex and engaging in drug trafficking.

Deputy Minister for Federal Territories and Urban Wellbeing M. Saravanan has been accused of the crime by opposition politician, M.S. Arjunan, also an ethnic Indian.

Arjunan claims he has evidence - complaints by three women victims and also videos - to prove his charges, but will make them public only in a court. “He came to give a statement but did not extend the desired cooperation,” The Star quoted the police chief as saying.

Arjunan also claimed he received a letter in Perak’s capital Ipoh from a victim. The letter said that Saravanan allegedly rented a house in Gombak for female students of an institution of higher learning and sent them for prostitution to hotels and to people who have traditional Malaysian titles like Datuk and Tan Sri.

The police chief said this was only delaying the investigations.

“Arjunan should know that the evidence was necessary for the investigation. We want to know the dates, when the alleged incidents took place, who the victims are. If there is no victim, how are we to investigate?” he said.

In a curious twist, Adam Harris, Arjunan’s colleague in the opposition Pati Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) party, lodged a police report Thursday, seeking reopening of files against Arjunan who had earlier been charged with molestations and engaging in gangsterism.

Harris, however, denied suggestions at a media conference that he was being paid by Saravanan to speak out against Arjunan.

Saravanan has denied the charge and demanded evidence. He challenged Arjunan Wednesday to upload on video-sharing website YouTube the alleged video recordings implicating him.

Saravanan, a former member of the Senate, the upper house of parliament, contested the Tapah seat in Perak state and became a minister in 2008. He belongs to the Malaysian Indian Congress (MIC), a constituent of the ruling Barisan Nasional alliance.

Multi-ethnic Malaysia is home to about 1.7 million people of Indian-origin, a bulk of whom are Tamils who settled here during the British rule.