Hindraf livid at inaction to probe forced conversion of teen

Chairman says Home Minister should intervene immediately as the IGP and the police are engaged in a cover up.

SEREMBAN: Hindraf Makkal Sakthi, alleging creeping Islamisation and institutionalised racism on the part of the police, wants to know whether the authorities concerned are waiting for 14-year-old Thiyagguru, fighting for his life at a hospital, to die before launching a sham investigation on his case.

“The father of Thiyagguru has made several police reports alleging kidnapping and forced conversion of his 14-year-old son who was so traumatised that it led him to attempt suicide,” said Hindraf Chairman P Waythamoorthy. “The boy is currently on his death bed and to date no arrest or investigation had been initiated by the police.”

“We strongly call on the Home Minister to intervene immediately as the IGP and the police are selective and prejudiced. Their inaction gives the obvious perception there is going to be a cover up.”

The police, he added, had not taken any statement from the minor, who might lose his life, or from his father in regard to the boy’s forceful detention by the Jabatan Agama based on the instruction of two national school teachers while the boy was still in school.

“We have information that none of the teachers, or officials of the relevant Islamic authorities involved in the forceful detention have even been questioned or taken into custody, bearing in mind the seriousness of the offence against a minor.”

Are the police waiting for the boy to lose his life first before initiating a sham investigation and closing the case?

“It looks obvious the police are deliberately not willing to obtain a dying declaration from the boy,” fumed Waytha, a lawyer in private practice who was briefly a senator and deputy minister in the Prime Minister’s Department in 2013/2014.

“This inaction by the police is clear evidence that the Police Department is institutionally racist and condoning religious extremism.”

The conduct of the teachers who were in cohorts with the Negeri Sembilan religious authority and their action of placing the child under false imprisonment to force him to convert to Islam, without the permission of the father, is nothing short of kidnapping which is a serious offence that warrants immediate arrest and remand, continued Waytha.

“Although the Constitution provides for equality in law under Article 8, it appears that the police inaction is deliberate and appears to be condoning these religious zealots.”