More than 50 people protest the alleged police killing of Sugumaran. — Picture by Boo Su-Lyn
Yesterday, eyewitnesses said that policemen had handcuffed 39-year-old C. Sugumaran before allegedly assaulting him fatally together with a mob of more than 20 near his house in Batu 12, Hulu Langat on Wednesday.
Sugumaran’s family, relatives and friends, as well as PKR and Parti Sosialis Malaysia (PSM) members, gathered outside the Kajang district police headquarters here under the blazing sun, hurling vitriol at the police.
“I can’t accept the report,” Sugumaran’s uncle A. Kuppusamy told the crowd here near a busy road today, referring to the post-mortem that said Sugumaran had died of a heart attack.
“The government is not right,” he added, gesturing angrily as the crowd chanted “Bohong bohong (lies, lies).”
Sugumaran’s family lawyer N. Surendran called for a criminal investigation under Section 302 of the Penal Code for murder.
“Don’t try to cover up this case,” said Surendran, who is also a PKR vice-president.
The protestors held banners showing pictures of Sugumaran lying dead on the ground, his shirt pulled up to reveal his torso, his face smeared with a yellow substance and hands handcuffed behind him.
Kajang OCPD ACP Abdul Rashid Abdul Wahab said yesterday that a separate police investigation into Sugumaran’s death would not be held as the Serdang Hospital post-mortem had revealed that the latter died of a heart attack.
Home Minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein, however, said today that Abdul Rashid did not have the authority to rule out an investigation into the death.
Hishammuddin also refused to state if an Independent Police Complaints and Misconduct Commission (IPCMC) should be set up.
Abdul Rashid stressed yesterday that neither the police nor anyone else had beaten up Sugumaran, whom he said was running amok in the middle of the road in Hulu Langat, destroying public property with an iron rod.
He added that the police did not splash turmeric powder in Sugumaran’s face and insisted that three policemen, assisted by about 10 people, had handcuffed Sugumaran as the latter resisted arrest.
Kajang assemblyman Lee Kim Sin, also known as Cikgu Lee, told the crowd today that Sugumaran’s death was not an “Indian issue”, but a “people’s issue.”
The predominantly Indian crowd shouted “Cruel police” and “Killer police” several times as vehicles passed by, with some passers-by snapping pictures of the protest with their handphones.
Surendran told The Malaysian Insider that the family would request for a second post-mortem most likely at the University Malaya Medical Centre, formerly known as University Hospital (UH).
“UH is a semi-government institution. They’ve done post-mortems before...public hospitals tend to favour the authorities,” he said.
Sugumaran’s aunt M. Munianah was teary-eyed as she told The Malaysian Insider, “We all live hard lives. Now this happened. He never had heart disease, only mental illness. That’s all.”
Sugumaran’s mother K. Manimagalay cried and refused to address the crowd.
The crowd grew angry when the police refused to allow more than five people into the police station to lodge a police report.
Surendran then announced that the family would lodge a police report at the Bukit Aman police headquarters instead next Tuesday.
“There are more than 20 family members,” Surendran told reporters, pointing out that at least 15 people, including the family members, lawyers and activists, needed to be present to lodge a report.
“In the police report, we would call for a criminal investigation under 302 for murder, demand a second post-mortem and a special team by Bukit Aman (to investigate Sugumaran’s death),” added the lawyer.
Sugumaran’s mysterious death joins a list of other headline-grabbing alleged police killings like the custodial deaths of Chang Chin Te earlier this year, A. Kugan and R. Gunasegaran in 2009, as well as the deadly police shooting of schoolboy Aminulrasyid Amzah in 2010, and various other fatal police shootings in the past two years.
A United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention 2010 visit to Malaysian prisons and detention centres reported in 2011 that between 2003 and 2007 “over 1,500 people died while being held by authorities”.
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