KUALA LUMPUR: Police have recorded a statement from Deputy Youth and Sports Minister Datuk M Saravanan regarding an alleged assault which happened at the office of Tamil Malar Daily in Jalan Ipoh on Tuesday.
Dang Wangi police chief Assistant Commissioner Mohd Sukri Kaman said Saravanan gave his statement at the district police headquarters here today to facilitate probe.
Sukri said police had interviewed 10 other people, including victims P Thiagarajan and K Saraswathy, who are the newspaper's owner and chief executive editor, respectively, to gather more evidence.
Sukri said the case was being investigated under Section 147 of the Penal Code for rioting.
In the 11.30am incident, a group of people went to the daily's office and allegedly attacked and injured Thiagarajan and Sarasawathy after a quarrel broke out between two sides.
The scuffle which happened outside of the Tamil Daily's office was recorded on a closed-circuit television camera.
The incident was believed to have been triggered by the newspaper’s expose of allegations which linked to Saravanan.
Saravanan, who is also the MIC Federal Territory liaison committee chairman, had refuted claims that he had sent MIC youth leaders from the Federal Territory to attack the workers at the daily.
He had reportedly claimed that his presence was to resolve the quarrel between the two groups.
“When I was at the scene, the two groups were pushing each other and I was there to prevent it from worsening,” Bernama quoted him as saying yesterday.