A legal adviser to the mother of an eight-year-old rape victim lodged a report against the Sentul district police today for allegedly "acting in bad faith and abusing their investigative powers".

P Uthayakumar who is also the pro-tem secretary-general of Parti Reformasi Insan Malaysia (Prim) lodged the report at the Brickfields district police headquarters in Kuala Lumpur.

He said his report made this morning was "to counter a criminal defamation report lodged against me by police under Section 500 of the Penal Code on Nov 15".

Section 500 of the Penal Code which deals with punishment for defamation carries a maximum jail term of two years or a fine or both.

Last Friday, Uthayakumar was summoned by the Sentul police to give his statement following the Nov 15 report but he did not go.

"I have to know what this report made against me is about before I give my statement to the police," he told malaysiakini .

Uthayakumar believes the report was made by Sentul district police chief Ishak Abdul Aziz following the accusations that he (Uthayakumar) made in a letter to the Inspector General of Police Norian Mai.

Among others, Uthayakumar had questioned Norian "whether the police was not protecting the rape victim's family because they were from a 'minority group'".

He said he felt the report was lodged by the police to intimidate him and the victim's family whom he was helping.

"We will not be intimidated and we will continue to fight for justice," insisted Uthayakumar.

Lawsuit filed

On July 12, the eight-year-old girl was abducted and raped by five men in a van while she was on her way home in Sentul, Kuala Lumpur.

Three months after the incident, the girl's father was hacked to death by five youths.

Police subsequently arrested three suspects aged between 17 and 25 but said the motive for the murder was revenge and the incident was not related to the rape.

The victim's mother, Mallika, who is six-months pregnant, was reported to have been physically assaulted and threatened by criminals even after making at least 10 police reports.

Mallika and her daughter are currently being sheltered at an undisclosed location by a non-governmental organisation.

On Nov 23, Mallika filed a lawsuit against the police for failing to protect her and her family from repeated harassment by gangsters. She is also claiming special damages amounting to RM450,000.

'Bollywood films'

In his police report today, Uthayakumar also took the police to task for "negligence in solving the case and protecting the victim's family".

Uthayakumar said he was dissatisfied with the police who had not commenced any internal inquiry into "their inaction which had led to a string of related cases".

Norian and Kuala Lumpur police chief Syed Abdul Rahman Syed Abdul Kadir, were also named in the report over their explanations as to why the rape victim's family was not given proper protection.

On Nov 28, Harian Metro quoted Norian as saying, "Our duty is not to provide each individual with protection as we are talking about 20 million Malaysians and only 83,000 police officers".

The New Straits Times on Nov 3 reported Syed Abdul Rahman as saying,"You cannot expect policemen to sleep in the house with the family. We do not play Bollywood films. We play the normal factual films. We deal with facts and evidence and tender witnesses in court."