Indian teen "suspects" jailed 17 days without charge: Uthaya slam police's "tukar gari" culture

Re:  1) Indian Juvenile (16) & (17) mere suspects jailed up to 17 days today without charge. 2) “Tukar Gari” becoming new police culture after amendments to CPC in reducing remand period. 3) Seven (7) such suspects in one day.  4) Racial profiling of Indian youths mere "suspects"  5) Resurgence of Polis Raja Di Malay-sia abuse of powers.

We refer to the above matter and in the general public interest wish to raise the following concerns:-

Single parent Dhanaletchumy (42) called over at the Hindraf Headquarters in Bangsar complaining that her son Yuvaneswaran a/l Rajendran (16) and his uncle Saravanan a/l Aryan (33) and their friend Venugopal a/l Ganesan (30) were unlawfully arrested by the Brickfields police when they were about to go up the lift to visit her sister at the PPR Pantai Dalam flats.

Dhanaletchumy told us that she is worried that they have been detained since 29/2/2012 at the IPD Klang Police Headquarters. She further said that at this police station one policeman had slapped Yuvaneswaran in the face and the other policemen told him that they have mixed another drug addict’s urine with her son’s and that he is now in trouble. Dhanaletchumy further fears for her son’s safety as there is a metal plate in her son’s right hand since a road traffic accident last year.

Police refused to answer

Our Mr. P.Uthayakumar immediately telephoned the Klang IPD Criminal Investigations Department (CID) Chief DSP Nik Ros Azlan bin Nik Abdul Hamid (            019-3805917      ) who said that the three were detained on suspicion of car theft. But when P.Uthayakumar asked whether they were in the midst of stealing or were in possession of the stolen car to qualify to be an arrestable offence and to be arrested, Nik Azlan refused to answer the question.

P.Uthayakumar further questioned the police inefficiency in investigating this case. He reminded DSP Nik Azlan that in any event the International Police Investigating Procedure (IPIP) requires the police to thoroughly investigate first before zooming in to arrest any suspect. Had they done this, the police should not need seven (7) days (today) but could have completed the investigations within 24 hours going by the Western Civil society standards. (see note below)

And thereafter if there is proof they could always charge the suspects in Court which is the Rule of Law. P.Uthayakumar had also questioned why they are already detained for (7) days now especially so when the Criminal Procedure Code had been amended in 2008 to drastically reduce the remand period. But the police abuse of powers seem to be old wine in new bottles as they now abuse their powers by this their new found “tukar gari” police culture.

"Tukar gari"

DSP Nik Azlan told P.Uthayakumar that the suspects would now be “tukar gari” for the third time and handed over to the Petaling Jaya police for yet again another suspected drug case. To this P.Uthayakumar had replied that he would be writing a letter of complaint to the Home Minister and the Inspector General of Police for them to be forthwith released.

We hereby express concern that today, in one day alone we have received complaints on seven (7) Indian youths via telephone including that of another juvenile (17), a lady worker Malarvili (41) and two other Indian youths “mere suspects” were arrested by the Taiping police. They have been arrested and detained for 17 days as of today. Malarvilli earns a mere RM550.00 per month as a worker and the other three are also workers at a scrap metal trader in Taiping.

Just because the boss had gone “missing” why unlawfully arrest their workers? These four have similarly been ‘tukar gari” to six (6) different police stations of Taiping, Sri Gombak, USJ, IPK Shah Alam, Kepong and to be transferred to Teluk Intan today according to the Kepong Investigating Officer Sergeant Effendi.

Malarvili had told her cousin brother Sutha that she is on the verge of committing suicide in jail.

As for the seventeen (17) year old boy his father is a disabled person receiving token Welfare aid and his mother a housewife.

Kindly take the necessary action and revert to us accordingly.

Thank You.

Yours Faithfully,

_______________

P.Uthayakumar

(De facto leader, Hindraf)

Note: An interesting statistic as to the position with regards to arrest and detention in United Kingdom vis a vis the at least 500% more backward and less efficient Malaysian police than the British police at expense of Constitutional freedom of the person (Article 5) may be of some relevance. In Civil Liberties, Cases and Materials by Bailey Harris and Jones at page 88 paragraph 3 the writer has outlined a very interesting piece of statistic. “The Royal Commission on Criminal Procedure found that about 75% of the suspects were dealt with within six hours and about 95% of the suspect within 24 hours. A survey done by the Metropolitan Police for three months in 1979 showed that only 0.4% of suspects had been held over 72 hours without charge or release”.)