Estate folk allege ‘official vandalism’ by City Hall & Malaysian Policemen

G Vinod | May 25, 2011

Bukit Jalil residents claim that City Hall officers and policemen tore their banners and broke their chairs.

KUALA LUMPUR: Bukit Jalil Estate residents have accused police and City Hall officers of thuggish behaviour in their neighbourhood today.

They went into the area at 10.30 this morning and proceeded to commit acts of vandalism despite a court injunction against demolition works there, according to K Balakrishnan, an official of the committee representing the residents.

He has lodged a report with the Bukit Jalil police station.

He said the intruders numbered about 30. Some 20 of them were officers of Dewan Bandaraya Kuala Lumpur (DBKL) and the rest policemen, he added.

“They came and tore the banners at the entrance to our estate. They also entered our guard post and broke our chairs.”

Several estate residents who were at the guard post reminded the officers that there was an injunction against City Hall, but they brushed them off rudely, calling them squatters, Balakrishnan said.

He said he arrived at the scene shortly afterwards and told them they could not demolish anything in the area or evict anyone because the matter was with the courts.

“A police officer named Chandraratna asked for our MyKads. We refused to show our cards and told him that we have an injunction against DBKL,” he said.

“When I tried to show the injunction letter, he refused to see it and walked away.”

The officers left the scene at about noon.

Balakrishnan, who is also Hindraf Makkal Sakthi national coordinator, criticised the policemen for working in cahoots with City Hall to evict the residents.

“If there’s no action against these errant officers, we will approach Bukit Aman for assistance,” he said.

The 41 families residing at the estate obtained an ex-parte interim injunction from the Court of Appeal on May 13 to stop DBKL from demolishing their homes.

Their lawyers filed an appeal after the High Court rejected their application for an injunction pending a trial scheduled for October.

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