Uthayakumar arrested this morning

Fauwaz Abdul Aziz (Malaysiakini.com)| Dec 11, 07 10:18am

Lawyer P Uthayakumar was arrested this morning in Bangsar and taken to the Jalan Duta Sessions Courts in Kuala Lumpur.

His fiancee S Indradevi who was with him during the arrest told Malaysiakini that Uthayakumar was not informed of the reason of his arrest.

She said two police cars stopped Uthayakumar’s car at about 9.20am opposite the Bangsar Shopping Complex and four plainclothes policemen rushed at him before grabbing him.

“They just told us that he was being taken to Jalan Duta. I was really scared. I am still trembling in fear from what happened this morning,” she said by telephone.

Lawyer M Manoharan said the arrest could be related to Uthayakumar’s role in the rally organised by Hindu Rights Action Force (Hindraf) on Nov 25.

“I believed he will be charged for illegal assembly. There could be more arrests coming later in the day,” he said when contacted.

At the same time, Manoharan is also not ruling out a charge under the Sedition Act for Uthayakumar, over a speech he had made in July at the Selangor Chinese Assembly Hall. This was Hindraf’s first public gathering.

Uthayakumar is Hindraf’s legal adviser. The rally - to highlight the marginalisation of the Indian Malaysian community - attracted about 30,000 people.

Last week, 31 of the protesters were charged with the attempted murder of a policeman. They were also charged with causing mischief. Sixteen of them were charged with illegal gathering as well.

Another round of arrests has been threatened by the police.

Uthayakumar and two other Hindraf leaders - P Waythamoorthy and V Ganabatirau - are currently out on bail on a sedition charge. Yesterday, the Shah Alam High Court ruled that the discharge order for the trio made two weeks ago was made in error.