'My brother was only feigning to burn himself'
The younger brother of the temple devotee who burned himself yesterday over the demolition of part of his temple’s storage room alleged today that several persons were on the roof with M Chakragunasegaran and issued ‘challenges’ against the latter.
The younger brother of the temple devotee who burned himself yesterday over the demolition of part of his temple’s storage room alleged today that several persons were on the roof with M Chakragunasegaran and issued ‘challenges’ against the latter.
M Alejandran claimed that his brother was only feigning the attempt at self-immolation, and suggested further that he was goaded into carrying out the act by the said individuals.
“Who would want to burn himself? My brother was only bluffing,” Alegandran told Malaysiakini when contacted.
“I was told that there were individuals who had gone up to the roof to order my brother to come down, and they issued threats against him.
“Because of his fear (of them), my brother got burned,” he added.
Separate police reports were lodged by family members of Chakragunasegaran as well as by the committee members of the Sri Srinivasa Perumal temple in Pusat Bandar Puchong, Selangor, where the incident happened yesterday.
In the drama that unfolded, Chakragunasegaran had climbed to the roof of the temple and pleaded for enforcement officers from the local council, police and members of volunteer defence corp Rela not to demolish a room that had served to store temple materials.
This followed the issuance of a notice directing the committee of the temple - which is situated within the compound of government school - to vacate the ten-year-old storage room to make way for a pre-school.
After Chakragunasegaran had doused himself with petrol and set himself on fire, he fell off the roof and became unconscious, and was said to have been in critical condition.
Chakragunasegaran has since stabilised and was transferred from the Selayang Hospital to the Kuala Lumpur Hospital.
The demolition exercise has been suspended for a week after negotiations between the enforcement authorities and representatives of political parties and the temple committee.
Candlelight vigil at Anwar's house
Meanwhile, a group of Hindraf supporters held a candlelight vigil at de-facto PKR leader Anwar Ibrahim’s house in Segambut Dalam tonight.
Around 8.30pm, About 20 people gathered outside the fence of Anwar’s bungalow carrying lighted candles as a symbol and reminder of the ‘sacrifice’ of
Chakragunasegaran.
They also displayed a poster of him.
They chanted “Where are the promises of PKR?”, “Where are the promises of Anwar?” and “Pakatan makes only empty promises”.
However there were a round 20 policemen were present to keep the gathering, which lasted about half an hour, under control.
W Sambulingam, the president of the Human Rights Party then pointed out how disappointed they were that election promises made by Pakatan Rakyat regarding issues like land for Hindu temples, cemeteries and schools, were not fulfilled.
He said they were gathering at Anwar house tonight because a demonstration at the PKR office in Petaling Jaya in March proved fruitless.
There was a moment of tension when a man. believed to be an employee of Anwar, asked the group to disperse.
The group was hoping for an Anwar representative to accept a memorandum from them but waited in vain. After a while, they left it at the gate and left.
Later someone from Anwar's house crumpled the letter and photo of the victim that was left at the gate.
