Since when has it been an offence to wear orange T-shirts?

Be wary when wearing an orange-coloured T-shirt as it could lead to trouble, mocked banned movement Hindu Rights Action Force (Hindraf) Penang-based coordinator RS Thanenthiran.

Thanenthiran, along with four others, who had gathered to pay their respects at the funeral procession of A Kugan, a theft suspect who died in police custody, was arrested around 12.30pm at the main entrance of the University Malaya Medical Centre (UMMC).

The five were released on police bail around 9pm last night following negotiations by lawyers N Surendran, Latheefa Koya, Amer Hamzah Arshad, M Manogaran and Gobind Singh Deo.

Three of them were arrested for wearing what police said were orange Hindraf T-shirts and two for trying to breach a police barricade to enter the mortuary.

Another man who was arrested with them is alleged to be a wanted criminal in Johor and he has been detained for further investigations.

According to Brickfields police chief Wan Abdul Bari Wan Abdul Talib in a New Straits Times report, the five were remanded under Section 186 of the Penal Code for obstructing public servants in the discharge of their duties and under the Societies Act for wearing Hindraf t-shirts.

“I went to the hospital to pay my last respect as a friend of the family but the police denied me entry and chased me away... they were being unfair to us,” said Thanenthiran.

“Is the colour orange now banned in the country?” adding that it only shows that the government is going backward rather than forward,” he said.

Arrests frivolous and unnecessary

Thanenthiran asserted that the police should not bar people from showing their grief for the 22-year-old Kugan who had collapsed and died while being detained at the Taipan police station in USJ8 for being allegedly involved in luxury car thefts in Kajang.

Thanenthiran has been asked to report back to the Brickfields police station on Feb 10.

More than 500 mourners were at the hospital's mortuary and later at the burial ground in Puchong Batu 14.

Meanwhile, lawyer Surendran said: “The police had recorded their statements but they were not wearing T-shirts with Hindraf printed on them... they were just wearing orange-coloured T-shirts with slogans such ‘Nov 25, 2007' and ‘Makkal sakthi’.”

“Now even wearing a T-shirt is an offence... the arrests were simply frivolous and unnecessary,” he added.