Raging row between MIC president S Samy Vellu and Maju Institute for Education Development (MIED) chief executive officer P Chithirakala Vasu is unlikely to subside any time soon.

The MIED top officer - who is on a long leave pending internal investigations - told reporters today that all her banking accounts, including her four children's saving accounts, have been frozen by the cops.

"The police have frozen my accounts, even my small accounts but will they do the same to Samy Vellu now that I have lodged reports against him," asked Chithirakala.

p chithirakala on mied 280209 02 Chithirakala, who braved all attacks from the MIC bigwig accusing her misappropriation funds and missing contract documents, lodged two police reports on Saturday.

One report was on RM2 million worth of donations which were collected to help the tsunami victims in 2004 under the Works Ministry, during the time when Samy Vellu was the minister.

The money, according to Chithirakala, was subsequently transferred to the account of MIC's social welfare arm Yayasan Pemulihan Sosial (YPS).

The second report was on missing files and documents relating to MIED and personal files from her office at the MIC headquarters.

She told reporters that she lodged the reports to halt any misuse of the funds as she suspected that Samy Vellu would put it to "any other unauthorised purpose and putting the blame on me".

Chithirakala, who has worked for MIED for the past 14 years, was told to go leave in December pending an internal investigation into the alleged irregularities in giving out maintenance contracts for the Asian Institute of Medicine, Science and Technology (Aimst) University.

Responding to Chithirakala's reports yesterday, Samy Vellu branded her of being a "nothing more than thief devoid of any morals and standards of decency" and assured "no amount of threats and personal attacks on me will deter me from that cause".

However, despite the constant attacks and accusations against her, Chithirakala remained determined to prove him wrong and added that she will take Samy Vellu to task for making accusation if he failed to present evidence to the allegations.

"I will not to sink to his lows and brand people... I have been brought up in way to respect people," said Chithirakala, who is amongst the few who have stepped up in the past to refute the MIC president.

"Decency is measured by the way one behaves and it is not establish by me going around and claiming that I am decent or not.

"If he is calling me an indecent person, I have no comments because it is up to the people to decide whether I am the one with moral values and decent behaviour or he is the one with moral values and decent behaviour," she reiterated adding that "the people have seen 30 years of Samy Vellu, they can decide for themselves".

Praised for efforts in MIED

Before the controversy emerged, Chithirakala was noted to be one of Samy Vellu's favourites and a confidante.

Speaking to reporters today Chithirakala reminisced about times when Samy Vellu had praised her for all work in MIED.

"I have been a good staff and he had given me so many testaments and promotions... when I wrote a book about him, at the book launch, he had only good words to tell about me," she said.

The clearly upset and perturbed Chithirakala added that she would see Samy Vellu in court for all that he has accused her of, once the police concluded their investigations.

Asked whether she now regretted working for MIED, Chithirakala said: "I never regretted a day I worked for him because I worked there for a cause which was to serve the Indian community and serve for their education".

"I admired him for his vision but when he lost the election and when he wanted to hijack MIED from MIC... I couldn't be apart of that sin," said Chithirakala.

She also blasted Samy Vellu for claiming that she took a high salary as a CEO.

"I am not a monkey to be paid peanuts... I have degree from United Kingdom and I have a Masters in Business Administration (MBA)," said Chithirakala, who is a chartered accountant by profession.

"I can safely tell you that I am the most qualified person in that building (referring to MIC headquarters)," she added.

chitrakala_samyvellu_mied_mic "He thinks this (MIED) is MIC... in MIC everything is governed by their constitution and it has been amended tremendously just to cover this one man... but MIED is governed by company laws, what he has given me is a summary dismissal, he can't just tell me to go on leave and do this nonsense," she said.

Chithirakala was also asked to comment on a report in the Star today that said the Commercial Crimes Investigations Department (CCID) had recovered about RM1.7 million of the missing RM5 million of MIED. The claims of the missing money was made by MIC vice-president S Sothinathan.

"For me the RM5.2million never went missing and if they (the police) said they have recovered it then they have to tell where they found the money," said Chithirakala, assuring that it was not recovered from her accounts.

At the end of the press conference, Chithirakala once again stated that she feared for her safety as well as her family's, as she had observed people stalking her.

"He can do anything to me because I choose this life... I choose to work for him but if he threatens my family I would destroy him before he destroys me," she said, adding that Samy Vellu was a powerful person.

Samy defends tsunami fund

samy vellu klang kapar dinner event 171208 03 Meanwhile in a statement issued later in the day, Samy Vellu responded to "some of the unfounded and malicious" allegations made against him by Chithirakala.

"When the tsunami disaster hit several neighbouring countries, I took it upon myself to collect funds from well-wishers under the auspices of the Construction Industry Development Board (CIDB).

"We collected a total of RM5,595,362.01," he said.

He said that a total of RM1 million was then disbursed to the Sri Lankan government and a further sum of RM1 million to the Tamil Rehabilitation Organisation and RM1.7 million to the Tamil Nadu Relief Fund.

These distributions were effected through the offices of CIDB, he added.

He said the balance RM1,895,362.01 was reserved for the building of a technical school at Vellati in Jaffna under the Tamil Relief Organisation.

"Architectural plans were drawn up but before those plans could be approved by the Tamil Relief Organisation, the civil conflict in Sri Lanka escalated.

"Under those circumstances the funds allocated for this project was eventually paid out by CIDB to Yayasan Pemulihan Sosial in March 2008 and placed under fixed deposit receipts.

"The interest earned to date, that is to say February 2009, is in the sum of RM57,952.00," he said.

He said that he will distribute copies of the fixed deposit receipts to the press if requested to "demonstrate that Chithirakala is a wanton liar and cheat".

"She is also guilty of making false police reports with respect to which I believe investigations will lead to charges against her," he said.