Poser over land owned by Batu Caves temple committee

THE Batu Caves Sri Mahamariamman Temple Devasthanam committee has been given 48 hours to reveal details of a development on a parcel of agricultural land in Jalan Kuching that belongs to the committee.

Persatuan Hindu Agamam Ani Malaysia said it will lodge reports with the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) and the police if the committee fails to do so before Monday.

Association chairman Arun Dorasamy said they want the board, made up of 73 members and seven trustees, to come clean and for the temple committee chairman Tan Sri R. Nadarajah to resign from his post.

He said they were giving the committee the ultimatum based on a series of revelations they discovered upon receiving complaints from the public.

“After receiving the complaints, we did a search and discovered a lot of shocking information,” said Agamam Ani legal advisor Saraswathy Kandasami.

According to her, the temple committee entered into a joint-venture agreement with a property developer in 2014 for a mixed development project to build commercial and residential units.

The GDV of the project in 2014 was valued at RM250mil making the amount payable to the temple to be RM62.5mil.

“However, based on our research as well as discussions with several committee members on condition of anonymity, we discovered that none of them are aware about the status of the project or if the temple has received the money,” she told a press conference in Petaling Jaya.

For now, only a sales office has been set up on the 1.8ha parcel of land.

An article published by an online portal quoted the developers as claiming that the said project was estimated to have a GDV of RM648mil.

“The amount is much higher, raising doubts on the initial valuation and why the temple committee was not made aware of the latest re-evaluation figures,” Saraswathy added.

She also said the developer’s website listed a few companies under the group that included one company whose director is a trustee of the temple committee.

There is also a caveat on the land by another company that claims to be the developer as well.

The second company has also made a statutory declaration as the developer of the said land.

However, upon investigation, the Companies Commission of Malaysia revealed that the company has no business address and it has been classified a dormant company with a paid-up capital of only RM2.

The issue was raised in a Tamil daily, prompting the lawyers of the second company to send a letter on May 31 clarifying that they are only the project management consultant appointed by the developer.

“Why should a consultant put a caveat on the land?

"Only those with an interest can do so. Moreover the company search shows that the company was only established in 2016, two years after the agreement was signed with the first company,” Saraswathy added.

Arun said based on these confusing details, the temple committee has a legal and moral responsibility to reveal details of the temple land deal.

He said they were also worried that the temple committee has lost its rights over the land since the power of attorney for the land has been handed over to the developer.

The temple committee also oversees the operations of the Sri Mahamariamman Temple in Jalan Tun HS Lee and the Kortumalai Pillayar Temple in Pudu, both in Kuala Lumpur.

Temple committee chairman Tan Sri R. Nadarajah could not be reached for comments.- Star