Court dismisses family's appeal over custodial death suit

 

The Court of Appeal upheld the dismissal of a family’s lawsuit over the 2013 death of custody of engineer P Karuna Nithi due to them having previously mounted a similar failed legal bid.

In reading out the decision of the three-person appellate bench chaired by judge M Nantha Balan, fellow member judge Mohd Nazlan Mohd Ghazali said that the originating summons is the same as the family’s earlier failed legal action filed at the Seremban High Court in 2018.

The second lawsuit was filed at the Kuala Lumpur High Court in 2021, which was dismissed in February last year.

(The first suit was dismissed on grounds that it was filed after the three-year statute of limitation in 2018, despite Karuna Nithi’s death in custody having occurred in 2013.)

Nazlan said that while the second suit tried a different approach by seeking relief over alleged contravention of fundamental rights under the Federal Constitution, it was still in essence seeking compensation from the government over Karuna Nithi’s death in 2013.

“In our judgment, while the cause of action (for the second suit) appears different (from the first legal action), it is inaccurate to say that the current suit would not be a matter of the earlier suit.

“Given the similarity of the two actions, the appellants could have included the present claim in the earlier suit but they failed to do so,” Nazlan said, adding that the legal principle of res judicata comes into effect here.

Res judicata means a thing or matter that has been finally juridically decided on its merits and cannot be litigated again between the same parties.

Nazlan then dismissed the family’s appeal and made no order as to costs. The other member judge of today’s appellate panel was Choo Kah Sing.

Counsel T Manoharan acted for the three appellants, namely the deceased’s widow R Kaliamah, 45, and her two sons, K Yugesh Varan, 23, and K Kisho Kumar, 21.

Senior federal counsel Donald Joseph Franklin represented the respondents, namely the government and the police.

On May 28, 2013, Karuna Nithi was first remanded at Tampin district police station following an alleged altercation with his wife and was further detained there when his family could not raise bail after he was charged.

The engineer, 42, was found dead in a lock-up at the police station on June 1, 2013.

Police CCTV recordings from Karuna Nithi’s lock-up showed him being assaulted by police and other detainees while in the cell. He was found with 49 injuries, mostly bruises, all over his body.

On Jan 28, 2015, the Seremban Coroner’s Court ruled that Karuna Nithi’s death was caused by injuries inflicted by beatings by the police as well as other detainees. Two years later, the Seremban High Court upheld the finding. - Mkini