CHITRAKALA Vasu, the rose among the thorns in the cast of the Maju Institute of Education Development (MIED) fiasco, is back from a long sojourn, providing a whiff of fresh air.

Yesterday, she filed three defamation suits against MIC president Datuk Seri S. Samy Vellu, his wife Datin Seri Indrani and Tamillanguage newspaper Tamil Nesan and its editor-in-chief for defaming her.

Many thought Chitrakala, 38, the former MIED chief operating officer, might have been bought over or threatened into silence.

“No, I am not throwing in the towel. I have said what I had to and kept quiet. Now when people are defaming me I must defend my reputation,” she told Malay Mail after filing the suits at the Kuala Lumpur High Court yesterday.

She said she was defending herself because if she failed to do so, it  would imply that she was guilty of the accusations.

“Thank God, my husband has been very supportive of what I am  going through. I need to clear my name and get on with my life,” said

Chitrakala, who made the decision to fight following the sacking by Samy Vellu of MIC treasurer-general and MIED chairman Tan Sri M. Mahalingam, 73, last December.

They were building a case against Mahalingam, she said, and she was pressured into going along with them.

But she stood her ground and because of that she was put on “gardening leave” and subsequently resigned and filed for constructive dismissal.

Asked if she had at anytime made use of her position to make money, Chitrakala, said there was no need to.

“My husband is well off and I was taught at a young age not to do business where I worked.”

Reflecting on her courage to stand up to the “giants” in MIED and MIC to be true to her conscience, the attractive soft-spoken mother of four with a warm bewitching smile and captivating eyes said the decision to break with Samy Vellu, whom she had regarded all along as her father, was not a planned move.

“I just could not do it ... going against my conscience and to bear false witness against Mahalingam whom they were out to get,” she claimed, adding on that evening of last Dec 31, she just pointed her finger at Samy Vellu, who was with several leaders, and told him off.

And since then the impeccably dressed Chitrakala, who holds a masters degree, has been pushed into the limelight of a raging storm.