The Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission has been urged to reopen its investigations into the case of the nine million Telekom shares allegedly ‘hijacked' by MIC president S Samy Vellu.

Save-Maika Shareholders Committee secretary A Sivanesan said that the MACC should also explain publicly on the status of its investigations on the matter following a report lodged by DAP leader Lim Kit Siang in 1992.

rela civil suit shooting death 130906 a sivanesan "If the case has been closed, maybe they should reopen it and find out what actually happened to the nine million shares that were originally allocated to Maika Holdings," he told Malaysiakini today.

"And if the case is still open, then MACC should speed up their probe and be transparent in the status of the case," added the DAP's elected representative for Sungkai, Perak.

Sivanesan said that the alleged ‘hijacking' of the shares from MIC's investment arm Maika Holding played an important role in the downslide of the company.

"If the cash injection has been put into Maika, maybe the company would have been financially stable and viable and not in a bad shape as it is today.

"It would not have been necessary for the Maika board to sell their only cash cow insurance company to repay its shareholders," he added.

Maika Holdings, formed in 1982 by Samy Vellu in an attempt to raise the Indian economy equity, has been in a downward spiral for a large part of its existence with all its business ventures failing to take off.

In the process, the 66,400 shareholders who had invested RM106 million in Maika, have not received any of the promised returns for their investments.

Samy's version disputed by others

NONE Finally in 2007, the Maika board headed by Samy Vellu's son Vell Paari ( in blue ) as the CEO, had promised to repay the shareholders through the sale of its golden goose Oversea Capital Assurance Bhd for RM129 million.

However that plan had to be put on hold following an injunction taken by Nesa Cooperatives, a Maika shareholder, who was unhappy over the sale price.

The nine million Telekom shares which Sivanesan was referring to was part of a 10 million Telekom shares granted by the Finance Ministry to Maika Holdings in 1990 for the socio-economic upliftment of the Indian community.

However two years later it was revealed that Maika was only allocated one million shares and the remaining nine million shares - valued at RM120 million - were redirected to three Samy Vellu-linked companies.

Samy Vellu had said that Maika could not take up the offer of the 10 million shares due to financial constraints, although this had been disputed by then senior Maika office-bearers.

samy vellu cooperative interview 060709 08 Samy Vellu had also said that the three companies which eventually took over the nine million shares had done their part to disperse the shares for the community.

"We do not believe this and we think these shares have been hijacked for personal gains. The MACC must get to the bottom of this scandal," said Sivanesan.

He said that the Save-Maika Shareholders Committee planned to meet MACC officials soon on the matter.

"Although there were many reports lodged with the ACA (MACC) over the matter, including one by Lim in 1992, we think the commission should take the initiative to dig deep to find out how the shares got transferred to unknown companies," he added.