The family of P Karuna Nithi failed in their latest civil action against the police and government over his death in custody in 2013.
The Kuala Lumpur High Court this morning dismissed the family’s lawsuit over the engineer’s death which was allegedly caused by injuries inflicted by the police as well as other detainees.
When contacted today, senior federal counsel Raja Zaizul Faridah Zaharudin confirmed that judicial commissioner John Lee Kien How @ Mohammad Johan Lee made the ruling during online proceedings this morning. Raja Zaizul acts for the defendants in the matter, namely the police and the government.
The SFC confirmed that the court also ordered the plaintiffs - the deceased’s widow R Kaliamah, 44, and her two sons, K Yugesh Varan, 22, and K Kisho Kumar, 20 - to pay costs of RM9,000 to the government and the police.
When contacted, the family’s counsel T Manoharan confirmed the outcome, adding that he has instructions to appeal against today’s court verdict.
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.
The family filed the present civil action (dismissed today) at the Kuala Lumpur High Court in January last year.
Through the said civil action, they are seeking several reliefs, among them being compensation over the authorities’ alleged contravention of the fundamental right to liberty enshrined under Article 5 of the Federal Constitution.
Previously in 2018 before the Seremban High Court, the family had mounted an earlier unsuccessful civil suit against the police and government over Karuna Nithi’s death in custody.
The Seremban High Court then had allowed a bid by the police and government to strike out the earlier civil action, on grounds that the earlier suit was filed out of time and should have been filed within three years of Karuna Nithi’s custodial death in 2013.
The police and government then had relied on Section 2(a) of the Public Authorities Protection Act 1948 (PAPA) over their contention of the time limit legal argument.
The family’s latest civil action before the Kuala Lumpur High Court had attempted to challenge the constitutional validity of the said PAPA provision.
However, Manoharan today said that the High Court disagreed with the plaintiffs’ contention, where it ruled that Section 2(a) is constitutionally valid.
Equality before the law
The lawyer said the court ruled that this is because the provision does not violate Article 8 of the Federal Constitution, which deals with the fundamental right to equality before the law.
“The judge said there is no issue about “equal treatment” under PAPA,” Manoharan said.
The lawyer added that the court also ruled that no constitutional compensation would be awarded to the family as any such compensation is not provided for under the Federal Constitution.
The family was also represented by counsel Gopal Sri Ram.
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 his bail after he was charged.
The engineer was found dead in a lock-up at the police station on Jun 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. - Mkini
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