Malaysian authorities on Saturday arrested two software engineers of HCL Technologies on suspicion of being illegal immigrants, a charge denied by both Indian authorities and HCL.
Members of RELA, a voluntary paramilitary body that helps Malaysian authorities to crackown on illegal workers, took the men to a detention camp for illegal migrants because they didn't have their passports with them, an Indian embassy official said.
While one of the engineers, whose identity was kept a secret, was released on Sunday after the authorities reviewed his passport, the 2nd engineer was still in custody, even though the authorities confirmed that all his papers were in order.
He is slated to be released late Monday.
In March 2003, Malaysian authorities had arrested some 250 Indians working in the information technology sector in Kuala Lumpur for allegedly 'not having proper documents.' However, after the intervention of the Indian government, they were released.
Again in May 2003, Malaysian immigration authorities detained an official of the Bangalore-based IBM India at the Kuala Lumpur airport.
In December 2002, Arun Jain, chairman and managing director of Chennai-based Polaris Software, had been detained 'against his will' by the Indonesian police in Jakarta.
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