By IANS
Kuala Lumpur : An activist of a Hindu rights group in Malaysia was rearrested Thursday on sedition charges, four days after the government released him along with two others for a speech they had made demanding more rights for ethnic Indians.
Hindu Rights Action Force (Hindraf) legal advisor V. Ganapathy Rao was detained under the Sedition Act, online edition of al-jazeera reported.
On Monday, Ganapathy and two other Hindraf members – P. Uthayakumar and P. Wyatha Moorthy – were freed from sedition charges on a technicality after prosecution lawyers failed to produce proper documentation in court on the speech made by them in Tamil earlier this month.
On Sunday the rights group had organised a rally of more than 10,000 ethnic Indians, the largest-ever mass protest by the community, demanding more access to jobs, education, health and against the “systematic destruction” of Hindu temples in the country.
The protesters had also marched in support of a $4 trillion lawsuit filed in London in August by Hindraf demanding that Britain compensate Malaysian Indians for bringing their ancestors to the country as indentured labourers and exploiting them.
Police had detained over 240 ethnic Indians for participating in the rally.
The Indian community in Malaysia has all along alleged that access to housing, education, financial loans and jobs is given to Malays on a preferential basis.
The destruction of Hindu temples by the Malaysian government has added to their grievances.
Ethnic Indians constitute eight percent of the total population of 27 million, but they control just 1.5 percent of the economy.