Former Hindraf treasurer K Vasanthakumar has filed a defamation suit against an Hindraf leader who accused him of being ‘planted’ by the police in the movement.

bagan pinang by election 021009 vasantha kumarThe suit was filed against Hindraf's area coordinator in Rawang, K Tamil Selvam, who is closely aligned to the movement's chairperson P Waythamoorthy.

Vasanthakumar (left) is seeking RM5,000,000 in damages as well as an injunction to halt Tamil Selvam from making further damaging statements against him.
                
The suit was filed by Vasanthakumar’s lawyer G Ragumaren at the Kuala Lumpur High Court Complex in Jalan Duta this morning.

Tamil Selvam's allegations were published in Makkal Osai on July 7 and 8 last year.

The allegations also implied that Vasanthakumar is a hypocrite and traitor who betrayed Indian Malaysians.

'Unfounded and baseless allegations'

Met later, Vasanthakumar told Malaysiakini that the allegations against him were "unfounded and baseless".

He also claimed that Tamil Selvan wanted to damage his reputation.

"Those statements were totally false, immoral and unethical. His accusations were meant to cause public hatred against me," he said.

Vasanthakumar along with V Ganabatirau, P Uthayakumar, M Manoharan R Kenghadharan and M Manoharan were detained under the Internal Security Act in December 2007.

A month earlier, Hindraf had staged a massive street demonstration in Kuala Lumpur to highlight the plight of Indian Malaysians.


Meanwhile, Waythamoorthy found himself stranded in London when the Malaysian government canceled his passport while he was abroad on lobbying efforts.

Kuala Lumpur subsequently requested the British government to help return the document. The Hindraf chair was in turn offered and successfully requested for political asylum in Britain on the grounds of being a human rights advocate.

While in detention, Uthayakumar and Vasanthakumar had a fallout when the former accused the latter of being a special branch agent.