Monday, March 08, 2010

'Charge cops who killed my son for murder'


The mother of deceased police detainee Kugan Ananthan will be submitting a petition to the Yang di-Pertuan Agong at Istana Negara tomorrow.

N Indra wants the policemen responsible for her son's death to be charged with murder.

Kugan, 22, was detained in connection with the theft of luxury cars last January. He died five days later on Jan 20 at the Taipan police station in Subang Jaya.

The case attracted widespread media coverage when a video recording surfaced showing the deceased's body covered with severe lacerations.

Although the police initially ruled out foul play, the family suspected that Kugan could have succumbed to the beatings endured during interrogation.

'Beaten and starved'

The first post-mortem concluded that he had died of fluid accumulation in the lungs, while a second post-mortem commissioned by the family revealed that Kugan was allegedly beaten and starved.

The post-mortem, conducted by a pathologist from the Universiti Malaya Medical Centre (UMMC), also showed that he had multiple burn marks.

These V-shaped burn marks are believed to have been caused by a hot iron, said the family's lawyer N Surendran then.

He also revealed that the first post-mortem conducted at the Serdang Hospital mortuary only examined the body from the chest up while the second examined the entire body.

He added that the second post-mortem found 42 other marks, burns and contusions from the sole of his feet right up to his head.

Surendran had said that the UMMC pathologist declared, based on the post-mortem, that Kugan was beaten so badly that his tissues broke down and his kidneys failed.

Due to an overwhelming public outcry, Attorney-General Abdul Gani Patail classified the case as murder.

Constabled charged with 'causing hurt'

Following a lengthy investigation, which saw 11 policemen being probed, the AG Chambers on Oct 1, nine months after Kugan's death, finally charged constable V Navindran.

Navindran claimed trial to two counts of causing "grievous hurt" while trying to extract a confession or extract any information to secure a conviction on two separate occasions on Jan 16.

While Kugan's family expressed disappointment with the charge and that the other policemen had apparently been let off the hook, Gani, however, explained why only Navindran was hauled to court.

According to Gani, out of 92 witnesses questioned by the police, four identified Navindran as the one who had inflicted the injuries on Kugan on those occasions.

"On both occasions, the suspect was said to have beaten the deceased with a rubber hose and four days later Kugan met his death," he said.

Gani also explained why Navindran was not charged with murder.

"There is no evidence that the deceased suffered instant death. Instead, the deceased died four days after the alleged beating.

"Therefore, there was a wide gap in between and a charge of murder could not be preferred against the suspect.

"The finding of the medical report did not show that the deceased died due to the injuries suffered by him, but the result of acute myocarditis -- a viral infection of the heart," he said.

courtesy of FreeMalaysiaToday

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