| A key leader of the Hindu Rights Action Force (Hindraf) was arrested under the Sedition Act early this morning but was released eight hours later.
Lawyer VS Ganapathi Rao was arrested at his office in Shah Alam, Selangor, at about 7.15am by a team from the Selangor police contingent headquarters and was immediately taken to Seremban.
He was released at 3.40pm under police bail and is due to report back to the Negri Sembilan police contingent headquarters on Dec 12.
G anapathi, when contacted, said he was arrested under Section 4(1)(b) of the Sedition Act over a speech he had made at a Hindraf forum held at Pei Hua Chinese Primary School, Seremban on Nov 17.
“They questioned me about certain words that were allegedly seditious and I denied them all totally. There were also some paragraphs that I thought were not seditious at all,” he told Malaysiakini.
Ganapathi, who said he was denied access to his lawyer, gave his cautioned statement without knowing the source of the complaint.
“They did not follow Section 28 of the Criminal Procedure Code to let my lawyers in to see me,” he claimed.
“I also asked the investigating officer ASP Ooi if there was a police report against me, but he did not tell me. They were more interested in getting my statement.”
He was asked an array of questions about such matters as his educational background, family, Hindraf’s history and his relationship with the group and other Hindraf leaders.
“But they did not rough me up or anything. They just asked me a lot of questions,” he added.
Silencing the critics?
In an immediate response, DAP MP for Ipoh Barat M Kulasegaran condemned the arrest, saying his party is very much against the Sedition Act, which restricts freedom of expression.
" It contravenes many provisions of the Federal Constitution and limits one's thoughts," he told a press conference in the Parliament lobby today.
Kulasegaran questioned if the arrest was "one of the many steps" taken to charge those who spoke at Hindraf-organised forums throughout the country.
"Is this a way to curtail and silence these people who tried to voice the suffering and unhappiness of the Indian community?" he asked.
He urged the government to call the key leaders of Hindraf and other civil society groups to arrive at a way to address issues that have plagued the Indian community.
He also said the community is "neither rattled nor scared" of high-handed action by the police who act as the "proxies of the government".
The Klang arrest
Last Friday, Selangor police arrested Ganapathi together with brothers P Waythamoorthy and Uthayakumar, for alleged sedition.
The same day they were charged at the Klang Sessions Court with making seditious remarks in Tamil, during their forum at the Yuen He Restaurant in Sungai Rambai, Jalan Batang Berjuntai, Kuala Selangor, between 8.30pm and 11.15pm on Nov 16.
H owever, on Monday, Klang Sessions Court judge Zunaidah Mohd Idris granted them a discharge not amounting to an acquittal after ruling that the charge was unclear because the prosecution did not attach transcripts of the allegedly seditious remarks in Tamil.
Last Sunday, about 30,000 people - mostly Indians - gathered at Jalan Ampang in Kuala Lumpur to participate in a rally organised by Hindraf to submit a memorandum to the British High Commission.
The authorities had denied a permit for the rally and obtained a rare court order restraining the public from taking part. The police used tear gas and water cannon to disperse the crowd. 
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