DAP man calls for public inquiry into latest custodial death

 

Security guard Sivabalan Subramaniam is believed to have died while in police custody at the Gombak district police headquarters yesterday.

PETALING JAYA: DAP’s Charles Santiago has called for a public inquiry into the latest custodial death, noting that the discrepancies surrounding the demise of a 42-year-old security guard has led “us to think of different possibilities”.

The Klang MP said among the discrepancies was the fact that while the police report states that Sivabalan Subramaniam had died at 12.25pm, police had called his sister at 3pm to inform her that he was critically ill at Selayang Hospital.

Santiago said he was not interested in waiting for the police to conduct their investigation as it was “ridiculous” to let the department probe its own men.

There must be a public inquiry, with the National Human Rights Commission (Suhakam) and the Enforcement Agency Integrity Commission (EAIC) taking the lead, he said.

He said all police officers who handled Sivabalan’s arrest must be suspended pending the outcome of the investigation.

“We have had one too many deaths in police custody, disproportionately involving ethnic Indians,” he said in a statement.

Santiago said he would like Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin to not only condemn the latest incident, but set up the long-proposed Independent Police Complaints and Misconduct Commission (IPCMC).

“Anything other than these actions is a farce,” he said.

Last night, Sivabalan’s family claimed that he died at the Gombak district police headquarters less than an hour after being taken in.

Police had arrested Sivabalan over an extortion case that happened in 2016.

His death comes less than a month after the same police station was embroiled in a controversy over the death of cow’s milk trader A Ganapathy while in police custody.

Gombak district police chief Arifai Tarawe said they would investigate Sivabalan’s death.

Arifai said Sivabalan had difficulty breathing and the Selayang Hospital was called to attend to the emergency.

He said the initial investigation showed that Sivabalan suffered from heart problems and the case had been classified as sudden death, pending a full report from Hospital Kuala Lumpur’s forensic department. - FMT