Malaysian police are investigating supporters of Indian rights group Hindraf for allegedly misusing several hundred thousand dollars in donation funds, a report said on Saturday.
The investigation follows the arrest of five Hindraf leaders last month under tough internal security laws after they enraged the government by holding an unprecedented mass rally against ethnic discrimination.
Deputy police chief Ismail Omar said police had received a report that the money, about 700,000 ringgit (US$215,000), meant for the families of those arrested, had been misused, according to a report in the Star daily.
"The report lodged alleged that several people entrusted with managing the money had allegedly misused the money for personal gain," Ismail said.
"We are investigating the matter and have classified the case as a criminal breach of trust," he told the paper.
R.S Thanenthiran, Hindraf's coordinator, said the report had inflated the amount of funds allegedly misused but declined to name the exact amount.
"The police and government are very welcome to investigate Hindraf and what we have done," he said. "This is yet another attempt by the government to divert people from the real issue of the marginalization of Indians by trying to discredit us through the use of such investigations."
He said the funds were donated by supporters at the various talks and prayer sessions organized by Hindraf in the last few months.
Meanwhile, officials at the Batu Caves temple expect a large turnout for the three-day Thaipusam festival, the largest Hindu festival in Malaysia, beginning today, the Star said.
The temple, on the outskirts of the capital, has been at the center of a row after its managers filed a police report against devotees who gathered to protest against discrimination of ethnic Indians.
At least 3,000 ethnic Indians had gathered in the temple grounds in November, drawing a stiff response from police who used tear gas and water cannon to disperse the crowd and made 69 arrests.
More than 8,000 people gathered the following day to again protest against discrimination by Muslim Malays, who dominate the population, and the crowd again faced tear gas and water cannons.
Kouri Richins, a Utah mother who published a children’s book about grief after the death of her husband is to serve a life sentence for his murder without the possibility of parole, a judge ruled on Wednesday. Richins was convicted in March of aggravated murder for lacing a cocktail given to her husband, Eric Richins, with five times the lethal dose of fentanyl at their home near Park City in 2022. A jury also found her guilty of four other felonies, including insurance fraud, forgery and attempted murder for trying to poison her husband weeks earlier on Feb. 14, 2022, with a
DELA ROSA CASE: The whereabouts of the senator, who is wanted by the ICC, was unclear, while President Marcos faces a political test over the senate situation Philippine authorities yesterday were seeking confirmation of reports that a top politician wanted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) had fled, a day after gunfire rang out at the Philippine Senate where he had taken refuge fearing his arrest. Senator Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa, the former national police chief and top enforcer of former Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte’s “war on drugs,” has been under Senate protection and is wanted for crimes against humanity, the same charges Duterte is accused of. “Several sources confirmed that the senator, Senator Bato, is no longer in the Senate premises, but we are still getting confirmation,” Presidential
HELP DENIED? The US Department of State said that the Cuban leadership refuses to allow the US to provide aid to Cubans, ‘who are in desperate need of assistance’ US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Wednesday said that Cuba’s leadership must change, as Washington renewed an offer of US$100 million in aid if the communist nation agrees to cooperate. Cuba has been suffering severe economic tumult led by an energy shortage that plunged 65 percent of the country into darkness on Tuesday. Cuba’s leaders have blamed US sanctions, but Rubio, a Cuban American and critic of the government established by Fidel Castro, said the system was to blame, including corruption by the military. “It’s a broken, nonfunctional economy, and it’s impossible to change it. I wish it were different,” he told
Myanmar yesterday published a parliamentary bill proposing the death sentence for those who detain or violently coerce people into working in online scam centers. Internet fraud factories have flourished in Myanmar, part of Southeast Asia’s scam economy, targeting Internet users worldwide with romance and cryptocurrency investment cons. The multibillion-dollar black market attracts many willing employees, but repatriated foreigners have also reported being trafficked to sites in Myanmar and tortured by scam center operators. The draft legislation would allow capital punishment for “violence, torture, unlawful arrest and detention, or cruel treatment against another person for the purpose of forcing them to commit online scams.” The
RSS