Sugumaran’s family, supporters to hold ‘sit-in’ protest outside Bukit Aman

KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 26 – Family members and supporters of the late C. Sugumaran will hold a “sit-in” protest at the Bukit Aman police headquarters next Tuesday to demand a second autopsy on the 39-year-old man’s body and a murder probe into his death.

The protest, to kick-off at peak hour from 10.30am onwards, will go on indefinitely, said the family’s lawyer N. Surendran, until the police agree to the family’s demands.

Surendran (picture) told The Malaysian Insider this evening that the man’s next of kin are outraged at the allegedly nonchalant attitude of the police towards the case, and have vowed to stop at nothing to demand “at least some measure of justice” for their loved one.

“It is terrible for the family... they want to complete the final rites for the man but they are not yet able to do that.

“The police seem bent on prolonging this delay... but imagine what it feels like for the family, the agony,” he said when contacted.

The PKR vice-president explained that he had written to the Inspector-General of Police Tan Sri Ismail Omar on Thursday, seeking a second post-mortem on Sugumaran’s body.

But until today, no one has replied, he said.

“The family cannot remove the body from the hospital and it is only with consent from the police that the hospital can proceed with a second post-mortem,” he said.

“All they want is that some measure of justice... This is murder, we want this classified as murder, and we want the real culprit arrested and brought to court.

“As it is, the process is painful enough,” added Surendran.

On Wednesday, eyewitnesses had said that the 39-year-old Sugumaran was chased down last week by four policemen who subsequently handcuffed and beat him to death together with a mob of more than 20 people in Hulu Langat.

They said that after the policemen caught and handcuffed him, more than 20 other men from a nearby restaurant joined the policemen and proceeded to assault him.

“The police stepped on Sugumaran’s neck,” R. Moohanarajan said when met at the Serdang Hospital. “Twenty to thirty people wearing plain clothes beat him up. He was lying face down with his hands handcuffed behind,” added Moohanarajan, who was Sugumaran’s neighbour.

But on Thursday, Kajang OCPD Asst Comm Abdul Rashid Abdul Wahab denied assaulting the security guard to death, citing the hospital’s first post-mortem on Sugumaran, which showed that the man had died of a heart attack.

In the police’s version of the incident, the Batu 14 Hulu Langat police station had received a call at about 6.30pm on Wednesday from a Malay man saying that Sugumaran had run amok and was destroying public property.

ACP Abdul Rashid added that three policemen in a patrol car and a motorbike tailed Sugumaran, who was on foot, for about two kilometres from Dusun Sri Nanding to Taman Lagenda Suria in Hulu Langat as the latter waved an iron rod, destroying flower vases near houses and electrical wires, until he fell down in the middle of the road.

 “The police, assisted by members of the public, held and handcuffed the man as he was still acting aggressively and trying to struggle during arrest,” said Abdul Rashid, stressing that the crowd of ten did not assault Sugumaran.

He added that a police officer then went to get a Land Rover to bring Sugumaran, described as a big-sized man, to the police station.

“But upon return, the Indian man was unconscious. The police then contacted the hospital and a medical officer came and pronounced him dead,” said Abdul Rashid.

The policeman stressed that a post-mortem done by pathologist Dr Mohd Azaini Ibrahim from Serdang Hospital today from 3.30pm to 8.30pm revealed that Sugumaran had died of a heart attack.

“No other injuries could have caused his death,” said Abdul Rashid.

But citing eyewitness accounts, lawyers for Sugumaran’s family have refused to accept the police version of the story and have demanded a second post-mortem, apart from insisting that the case be classified as murder under Section 302 of the Penal Code.

On Thursday, Surendran and another PKR lawyer Latheefa Koya urged the police to classify the case as murder after rejecting the Serdang Hospital’s claim that Sugumaran had died of a heart attack.

They also called for all police officers allegedly involved in beating the man on Wednesday to be arrested and suspended pending investigations and a second post-mortem.

Furthermore, the two lawyers pointed out that this was not the first time the Serdang Hospital had allegedly conspired with the police to rule out murder.

“It should be noted that the Serdang Hospital has a history of falsifying post-mortem findings in favour of the police authorities.

“In the A. Kugan case, Serdang Hospital falsely claimed that Kugan died of water in the lungs when in fact he had been beaten to death in police custody.

“The Serdang pathologist Prof Dr Abdul Karim Tajuddin was subsequently found guilty by the Malaysian Medical Council (MMC) of professional misconduct for falsifying Kugan’s post-mortem findings,” they said.

According to Surendren and Latheefa, the hospital had again breached medical ethics by refusing Sugumaran’s family to see the body until they were persuaded to do so by lawyers and activists, four hours later.