A group of MIC leaders have lodged a police report today against party secretary-general A Prakash Rao over a police report he made, accusing MIC members of being behind the commotion at the party headquarters last week.

It is noted that Prakash had lodged a police report on a few MIC leaders - including former youth chief T Mohan, party strategic director S Vell Paari, Ampang Jaya branch leader N Muneandy and the Youth wing - on Monday, alleging them of orchestrating the ruckus at the headquarters last Thursday.

“The secretary-general (Prakash) made a big blunder by lodging a report against the party’s own members. This will affect MIC’s reputation,” Muneandy told Malaysiakini today after lodging the report.

He lodged the report today at the Dang Wangi police station alongside other MIC leaders, with Mohan and Youth wing assistant chief V Thinalan among them.

Muneandy added that the group would also be sending a lawyer’s notice to Prakash to demand clarification on the police report against them, as well as a public apology.  

“We will send a lawyer’s notice to him on this issue. We will also ask him to issue an apology to those he named in the police report,” he said.

Despite the many voices urging for MIC president G Palanivel’s resignation, Muneandy insisted that the group of MIC leaders were not against the former, and just wanted to solve the re-election issue as directed by the Registrar of Societies (ROS).

“We are not against the president, nor (do we) want him to resign. We want to solve the (re-election) issue amicably,” Muneandy stressed.

‘They were there as peacemakers’

Meanwhile, Youth wing leader C Sivarraajh criticised Prakash for blaming the wing members when they had actually been there as “peacemakers” to “prevent the ruckus” from happening.

“They were there to help ease the situation from exploding into dangerous levels,” he said in a statement today.  

The wing chief reiterated that the Youth members were there to act as a bridge between the two divided groups of supporters present in the party.

“I had instructed the Youth wing members to act as security to prevent any clashes between MIC members and supporters of party president G Palanivel who had also arrived that day,” Sivarraajh said.

However, he stressed that the party leaders should put aside their differences and MIC gets its act together ahead of the coming general election.

“Our concern is that party elders would put aside their differences and sit and discuss how best to overcome this current crisis. We feel that the leaders have to come up with holistic solutions to satisfy both factions, as well as keep the party intact.

“We cannot afford to have feuds and infighting. The general election is only three years away, we have to collect all our resources and get ready for the big battle ahead,” Sivarraajh added.

Last Thursday, mayhem erupted outside MIC headquarters during an emergency CWC meeting to discuss the ROS directive for the party to hold a re-election.

An angry crowd had swarmed, kicked and thumped the car of one CWC member after the meeting, forcing the police’s Light Strike Force to intervene.

There were angry protesters and party members urging for the resignation of Palanivel, who was also mobbed when exiting the meeting.

The Cameron Highlands MP has since brushed aside such allegations, stating that the members were there to support him.

However, Prakash denied that he was under any directives from top party leaders to make the police report.

Prakash added that he was not blaming anyone specifically for the commotion which ensued on Thursday and had simply given a chronology of events to the police.

"I lodged the report in my capacity as secretary-general. I told the police what transpired between 11am to 6pm on Thursday," Prakash told Malaysiakini .