A police report was lodged claiming that a group of men linked to Deputy Youth and Sports Minister M Saravanan had assaulted the owner of a Tamil daily and its legal advisor.

However, the MIC leader denied that such an incident occurred.

"I deny it totally, no such incident happened.

"In the last two days, Tamil Malar had been publishing fake news about Federal Territory MIC and today, some MIC Youth boys wanted to clarify the issue (with the newspaper).

"They had an argument on the streets, they were pushing each other but it was not a serious attack," Saravanan (photo) told Malaysiakini.

Saravanan, who is Federal Territory MIC chief, said he arrived at the scene this morning after being informed of the scuffle and had "asked everyone to go home".

Malaysiakini learnt that both sides had filed reports with the Dang Wangi district police headquarters.

Met at Tamil Malar's office in Kuala Lumpur, journalist C Christ claimed he witnessed the daily's owner Oms Thiagarajan and legal advisor K Saraswathy being assaulted.

“My boss (Oms) was arguing with Saravanan when I walked towards him, and then a member of Saravanan’s group wearing a T-shirt saying ‘MIC Taskforce’ punched my boss.

“There was a fight and they even tore my boss’ shirt.

“And they snatched her (Saraswathy) phone because she was taking photographs.

“One of our photographers named Shan was also slapped. They grabbed his camera.

“The whole thing took about 30 minutes,” Christ relayed to Malaysiakini, adding that there had been 70 to 80 young men involved.

When contacted later, Dang Wangi district police chief Sukri Kaman confirmed that police are investigating the matter and are in the process of recording statements.

In a media statement, DAP lawmaker M Kulasegaran urged the police to take immediate action.

The Ipoh Barat MP said he met Saraswathy at the police headquarters. 

Newspaper reports triggered scuffle?

The daily had on Sept 3 published an article with the headline “Where is the rental money collection?” on its front page.

It was a report on the Selangor MIC annual general meeting (AGM), where MIC Kota Raja chief VT Rajen had asked about the absence of rental payment receipts for the Federal Territory MIC building, explained N Nandini, the Tamil Malar journalist who wrote it.

Malaysiakini understands that the building belongs to the party but Federal Territory MIC, as the tenant, was required to pay rent for it every month.

Saravanan’s response was published today, in which he had expressed his outrage over how the paper had asked about his division’s accounts.

Meanwhile, Penang Deputy Chief Minister II P Ramasamy has condemned the attack on Tamil Malar, describing the protesters as "thugs".

"Is gangsterism and aggression the way to go now for MIC?

"What they could have done is to debate or respond to the reports which criticised them and not to attack reporters," Ramasamy told Malaysiakini.