Batu Caves rally on, say organisers as temple committee lodges report

WITH the organisers of the BatuMalai Maha rally insisting that the event will proceed as planned on Sunday to pressure the Batu Caves Sri Mahamariamman Temple to come under the purview of the Registrar of Society (RoS), the temple's Devasthanam committee has lodged a police report on the matter.

Temple trustee Datuk N. Sivakumar (pic below) confirmed that the temple committee had lodged a police report on June 20.

Speaking to StarMetro, Sivakumar said the rally organisers – Reform Batu Caves and Persatuan Hindu Agamam Ani Malaysia – had not obtained permission from the temple committee to hold the rally on temple grounds despite their claims. 

“The rally organisers claim they have obtained approval from the board, but this is not true.

"In fact, the rally goes against the 2012 Peaceful Assembly Act,” he stressed.

In the police report lodged by the temple secretary C.Sethu Pathy, the temple committee stated that it had not given the organisers approval to use their premises as required under Section 11 of the act.

The committee also sent a letter to the organisers to impress this point upon them.

It was also stated in the police report that under Section 4 of the act, it was illegal to organise a rally in a place of worship or anywhere within 50m of a prohibited location.