IPOH: Young mother M. Rajeshvari, who was recently released from the Lenggeng Immigration depot for illegals in Negri Sembilan, wants an apology from the department’s director-general for her wrongful detention.Perak Health, Environment and Human Resources Committee chairman A. Sivanesan relayed Rajeshvari’s demand during a press conference yesterday as she is not fluent in Bahasa Malaysia.
He said it had been two weeks since Rajeshvari’s release, but department director-general Datuk Mahmud Adam had been “dead silent” on the matter.
“There is no apology, offer of compensation or visit to her Kampar house to explain her wrongful detention,” he told reporters yesterday.
It was reported that Rajeshvari spent 11 agonising months at the depot because she could not recall her MyKad number and was not fluent in Bahasa Malaysia.
The 22-year-old, who was six months pregnant then, was waiting for a relative at a coffeeshop in Brickfields, Kuala Lumpur, when a raiding police party asked to see her MyKad.
She failed to produce her MyKad as she had lost it.
Noting that Rajeshvari planned to sue the department, Sivanesan said the police officer and Immigration Department officer involved in her arrest and subsequent detention should come forward and explain.
Urging the department to check all detention depots in the country, Sivanesan said he feared that Rajeshvari’s case could be just the tip of the iceberg.
Ipoh Barat MP M. Kulasegaran, who was also present, said when Rajeshvari was charged in court, she was not given an interpreter who could converse in Tamil nor was she given any legal representation.
“It is the court’s duty to provide an accused with an interpreter and a lawyer,” he said.
-The Star Online
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