THREE hawkers, whose stalls were moved in Brickfields, have handed over a 10-minute recording between the Kuala Lumpur mayor and their representatives to the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) today.

They were present with lawyer Dinesh Praveen Nair at the MACC headquarters in Putrajaya to present evidence linking local authorities to the eviction of seven hawkers in the Little India enclave.

They handed over audio clips of a conversation between mayor Mohd Amin Nordin, National Public Complaints and Welfare Service Centre chairman A. Chandrakumanan and one of the traders V. Alagi, which took place on May 4 at the Kuala Lumpur City Hall.

“What Amin said is that the Prime Minister’s Office and then prime minister Najib Razak knew about the eviction and there was a directive from them and secret minutes to this. This was recorded,” Dinesh said.

The hawkers were badly affected by the move to Kompleks Tun Sambanthan and were later told to seek the permission of the owner of Kortumalai restaurant if they wanted to move back to their original trading lots. 

“Why should the traders ask the restaurant for permission? Who is the restaurant owner to give such permission when the place was actually built (in 2009) for the traders.”

Dinesh said MACC advised his clients to hand in the evidence instead of lodging a report over the matter.

Amin when contacted said they (DBKL) are transparent and willing to cooperate with any investigation. 

“MACC can come and see me. I can explain and they can have my statement. We are transparent and I have no worries about assisting them,” he told The Malaysian Insight.

On September 17, DBKL conducted a pre-dawn raid, confiscating the stalls and items belonging to the seven. – May 31, 2018.