Saturday 24 January 2009

Detainee's death: 11 policemen removed - Malaysiakini

Malaysiakini quoting an NST report said that Police have removed 11 constables and lance corporals from the Subang Taipan police station where the case of A Kugan, a detainee, who died in their custody, was reclassified as murder yesterday with immediate effect.

According to the report, Selangor police chief Khalid Abu Bakar said the policemen were currently at the contingent headquarters in Petaling Jaya on desk duty.

Khalid said that they have been at the contingent headquarters to speed up the investigation and police expect to complete the investigations within three days.

“Police are still recording and compiling statements. Once the investigations are completed, we will decide on the next course of action," he said.

Yesterday, Attorney-General Abdul Gani Patail classified the death of the 22-year-old police detainee as murder and it was learnt that investigations were already underway.

In Kuching yesterday, Inspector-General of Police Musa Hassan said an in-depth investigation would be carried out.

He said this was despite the initial post-mortem which indicated that Kugan had died of pulmonary edema or fluid accumulation in the lungs.

Musa, however, condemned the actions of a mob which forced its way into the Serdang Hospital mortuary on Tuesday night, evicted the hospital staff and locked themselves in for two ours.

They were believed to have taken pictures of Kugan's body, which they claimed had bruises all over.

"The mob incident shouldn't have happened in the first place.

"The group should not have obstructed the medical team from performing their duties that night," said Musa after chairing the 1st Tripartite meeting between the police chiefs of Malaysia, Indonesia and Brunei yesterday.

Deputy ministers to cooperate

Police have also contacted the two deputy ministers, T Murugiah and SK Devamany, both with in Prime Minister's Department, to have their statements recorded.Both were said to have been present during the mortuary incident.

In Kuala Lumpur, Devamany, while saying he would co-operate with the police, added: "The reclassification of the case as murder is good. I don't regret going there (mortuary). The rakyat needed us (Murugiah and him)."

After all, as an MIC central working committee member and as a deputy minister, this is my job...to serve the rakyat and to serve the Indian community when they needed help.

"If there is no foul play, then no one should be afraid. Let the law prevail. For now, I can see that with the murder charges, justice has prevailed," he said.

Police have also identified most of the 50 people in the mob at the mortuary.

Meanwhile, the Malaysian Human Rights Commission welcomed Attorney-General Abdul Gani Patail's instruction to the police to investigate Kugan's.

Its chairman, Abu Talib Othman, said probing the death was the "right thing to do".

"Let the police gather evidence so that the attorney-general can act without fear or favour and for the next course of action to be taken," he said.

Bar: Don't focus on mortuary incident

The Bar Council, meanwhile, hoped the authorities' attention would not be focused on the incident at the mortuary while investigating Kugan's death.

Its president, S Ambiga, said the people's reaction only reflected their feelings of outrage over the death."We trust that undue attention will not be given to the incident at the mortuary.

It reflected the reactions of persons who were understandably outraged and emotional about Kugan's sudden and unexplained death.

"This view prevails because none of the perpetrators of similar acts in the past have been brought to book," she said.

Ambiga addded that this incident once again prompts the setting up of an Independent Police Complaints and Misconduct Commission.

"We also call on the authorities to expedite the ongoing inquests into other custodial deaths," she said. - Malaysiakini

Read:
Bernama report: MIC Wants Independent Probe Into Kugan's Death
Sakmongkol Ak47's entry The Murder of an Unknown Indian is NOT less important

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

The report is rather unclear. Are they the culprits and involved/implicated in the murder?

Have they been removed from their duty & hence assigned to desk work?

matt said...

wanna know,

I got this from the nut graph: Here's the link:

http://www.thenutgraph.com/kugan-death-classified-murder

Meanwhile in PETALING JAYA, a special Bukit Aman investigation team has recorded statements from police officers who were on duty, when Kugan died in custody at a police station in Subang Jaya on 20 Jan.

Headed by Federal CID deputy director Datuk Shatar Abdul Jalil, the team had taken statements from 11 police officers from constables to corporals aged between 25 and 30 at various places including the Selangor contingent headquarters since 21 Jan.

"We will complete the probe soon. There will be no cover-up. The case has attracted a lot of attention. Give us time to investigate (the case)," said Selangor police chief Datuk Khalid Abu Bakar told reporters here today.

He said the special team was set up to investigate allegations by Kugan's family that he was physically abused by police.

Anonymous said...

What I find totally disgusting with this exposee is instead of focusing and getting to the bottom of incidents of death in custody, the police force is focusing on trying to find the people who stormed the mortuary, How many times have deaths in custody been covered up? Based on statistics, since 2004-2007 there have been 1400 over deaths in custody, with 90% of the dead being Indians, Now is this the ethnic cleansing that HINDRAF IS TALKING ABOUT. How the the PRIME MINISTER AND THE CABINET JUSTIFY THESE DEATHS. The buck stops at the foot steps of the PM, and his Cabinet, his IGP AND CPO. SINCE WHEN HAS THE PDRM BECOME JUDGE, JURY AND EXECUTIONER. The abuses and corruption in the PDRM AND THE JUDICARY HAS BEEN CLEARLY EXPOSED, Now what do we do, we DEMAND FOR THE IPCMC AND The removal of the appointments from the hands of politicians and put in the hands of PARLIMENT. THIS is a clearcut case of politicians unable to handle the police, There should be a total revamp of the police force. Instead of the PDRM fighting crime, they are the ones commiting the crimes, If BN cannot handle this than BN SHOULD JUST RESIGN AND LET OTHERS TAKE OVER AND CLEANUP THIS MESS. I am a staunch supporter of BN, but after this, NO MORE TO BN, I WILL VOTE ANY DONKEY INTO OFFICE AS LONG AS IT IS NOT BN.

Retired
Major Harbajan Singh
TUDM.

mamasita said...

If the guilty ones are brought to trial, I hope the Indian community will be satisfied and not treat this as something racial.
Strangely, there is a tendency to go that direction.
Please bear in mind that when there are car thefts or muggings, nobody ever say only the Malays or the Chinese community are the targets.
Thanks.

Anonymous said...

Lots of unreported news lately Kak,
The UM surau 'heavy'incident for instance was not reported in the news.

Thus,from my wee sense,which news carries more heavy weights?

People!!!!what are you doing to your country?

As Barrak Obama speech,

"To the Muslim world, we seek a new way forward, based on mutual interest and mutual respect. To those leaders around the globe who seek to sow conflict, or blame their society's ills on the West: know that your people will judge you on what you can build, not what you destroy. To those who cling to power through corruption and deceit and the silencing of dissent, know that you are on the wrong side of history; but that we will extend a hand if you are willing to unclench your fist.'

Wassalam and Peace.

Anonymous said...

This latest case of police brutality will further tarnish the image of the force.

They better carry out a thorough investigation, dont screw up & be made accountable.

There are no two-ways about it.

Lee said...

If Kugan's death has been classified as murder by the AG why are the policemen involved not arrested immediately and charged in court?Investigation should not be conducted by Selangor Police as they are not fit to carry out the job.Meanwhile the 11 policemen involved should be in jail and not just transfered to Police HQ to do "desk jobs"!Where is the credibility?

puteri said...

Dear mamasita,

I share your sentiments. We fight for justice. I am against violence and brutalities inflicted on those the powers-that-be are supposed to protect.

In the case of the detainee, he was a suspect under police custody & hadnt been charged yet. So he was innocent until proven guilty by the court.

I shudder when I looked at the photos.

No one should be brutalised as he had been.

Having said that we should NOT make this into a racial issue.

Like you wrote Strangely, there is a tendency to go that direction.

I hope justice will preveil and those responsible be held accountable, hauled up & punished!

Anonymous said...

Tok Mummy,

Saya setuju dengan pendapat Sakmongkol ak47 didalam blognya.

Orang Melayu patut mengambil iktibar daripada peristiwa ini. Sekiranya ia berlaku kepada keluarga kita, kita patut membawanya ke meja keadilan dan bukan berserah kepada takdir. Tak kisah lah jika anak kita perompak ke, samun kereta ke, pembunuh ke, janji saman. Lagipun, sebagai ahli keluarga masakan kita tak tahu anak kita dapat duit dari mana. Betul tak? Kita patut belajar untuk meraung2 dan menangis tanpa rasa malu kerana punca mata pencarian kita juga dah hilang. Janji kita salahkan orang lain ke atas kesengsaraan keluarga kita dan kesilapan kita membesarkan anak kita. Saman berjuta2 dan pasti ada lawyer dan org yang akan mempolitikkan perkara ini (utk agenda masing2) yang menyokong kita asalkan kalau kes kita menang pasti dapat duit, agenda tersembunyi org2 yang menyokong pun tercapai.

Amacam org melayu? We better start to get noticed:-)

Apa kata kita mula dengan perlembagaan di mana kita persalahkan Tunku Abdul Rahman kerana isu kerakyatan dan cara pemerintahan. Negara ini sepatutnya terus diperintah oleh Raja2 MELAYU dan Sultan2 MELAYU sahaja demi kedaulatan kesultanan MELAYU dan tanah MELAYU. Tidak perlu dirunding mengenai kerakyatan. Selain daripada orang MELAYU, orang2 ini hendaklah dihantar pulang ke negara masing2 kerana kedatangan bukan atas jemputan orang2 MELAYU tetapi penjajah Inggeris utk megerjakan lombong2 bijih timah dan estet.

Jom kita orang MELAYU meraung dan menangis beramai2 tanpa segan silu? Jom!!


SEMAN BIN KULUP

Anonymous said...

From legal prespective mana ada niat untuk membunoh Kak!
Prove it.


Lagi pun,dah jadi justice by the media.Out of propotion in pure legal sense.
Mana boleh interference daripada pihak ketiga.

Dia orang makin biadaplah kak!

Anonymous said...

PENJENAYAH DAH JADI NASIONAL HERO, PARIAH..PARIAH CUBA TUNJUK KUASA DENGAN MENYERBU MASUK KERUMAH MAYAT SATU LAGI TINDAKAN JENAYAH YANG TAK MENGHORMATI UNDANG-UNDANG, MACAM HINDRAF

Anonymous said...

Anonymous said...

PENJENAYAH DAH JADI NASIONAL HERO, PARIAH..PARIAH CUBA TUNJUK KUASA DENGAN MENYERBU MASUK KERUMAH MAYAT SATU LAGI TINDAKAN JENAYAH YANG TAK MENGHORMATI UNDANG-UNDANG, MACAM HINDRAF

5:35:00 PM

I love this. Wow -a 22 yar old claims exec (according to Malaysian Insider) is a Kingpin of Luxury Car Theft. Wow.And what do we do Kill him.

What about all those who abuse the AP and stole Millions of tax payers money. What shall we do with them - kill them also?

What about Raazk Baginda? Is he a pariah too? Why not kill him too?

What about Chief Inspector Azilah Hadri and Corporal Sirul Azhar Umar ? Shall we kill them too?