| THE 15-year-old Telekom/Maika Holdings share controversy has returned to haunt MIC president Datuk Seri S. Samy Vellu after police reopened the case following a report lodged by an MIC official. |
“I have given police full details of what really happened and how the shares were received and sold and the huge losses suffered by the Indian community,” Thiagarasan told Malay Mail.
He said previous investigations into the scandal had been “inadequate and suspect”.
“We need a complete, open and transparent investigation into the shares intended for the benefit of the Indian community,” he said.
Thiagarasan lodged a report at the Dang Wangi police station on May 22, detailing what happened to the shares and the role allegedly played by Samy Vellu.
A senior police officer confirmed receiving the report and a bundle of documents.
The case was investigated by the Anti-Corruption Agency in 1992 and Samy Vellu was cleared of all improper behaviour. However, the ACA reopened the case a year later, following evidence given by V. Subramaniam aka Barat Maniam, who claimed he and others worked “day and night” to free Samy Vellu from ACA suspicions.
Asked about Thiagarasan’s police report, Samy Vellu said he had nothing to hide and declined further comment.
“This matter was thoroughly investigated and I have been cleared,” Samy Vellu had said numerous times before.
Thiagarasan said he was raising the matter on behalf of 66,000 shareholders who had suffered badly from the loss of the nine million shares, “which is easily worth over RM300 million now, inclusive of numerous dividends and issuance of bonus shares”.
He urged the government to open a “just, fair and open investigation into this matter”.
In 1990, the government allotted one million Telekom shares to Maika Holdings, the investment arm of the MIC and nine million shares to the Indian community, but the shares allegedly went to three RM2 companies nominated by Samy Vellu and partly owned by his son, Vell Paari, other close associates and a former driver.
Thiagarasan stated in his police report that MIC was never informed that nine million shares had been allocated to the Indian community.
In 1992, then Finance Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim released the names of the three companies and the shares allotted to them, sparking a fierce controversy that, 15 years later, is still raging within MIC.
On May 28, MIC issued a show-cause letter to Thiagarasan, 54.
The letter, signed by Samy Vellu ally Tan Sri G. Vadiveloo, listed three charges against him, among them that Thiagarasan issued Press statements in April accusing Samy Vellu of allegedly misappropriating Telekom shares given to Maika Holdings and MIC in 1990.
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