The trial of a policeman charged in connection with the death of A Kugan, 23, heard today that the furniture in the room of the police station where he was found dead may have been moved around since the time of the incident.

Questioned by defence lawyer PM Nagarajan at the Petaling Jaya Sessions Court, ASP Mohd Zainal Abdullah, 32, said that the photo of the room shown to him in court did not match an initial sketch which he made of the room

 

azlan He was referring to the morning of Jan 20 last year when Kugan was found dead at the USJ Taipan police station where he had been detained for suspected car theft.

According to Zainal - attached to the Subang Jaya district police headquarters (IPD) and who was assigned as the investigating officer - he drew a rough sketch when he first arrived at the scene at about 2.30pm.

Referring to the location of two chairs, Zainal said one of the chairs had traces of vomit of which a swab was taken.

Nagarajan: Referring to the chair which has traces of vomit, has the chair been moved from its initial location?

Zainal: Referring to the photo, (the chair) has been moved because the (initial) location is as sketched.

Zainal, who is the second last prosecution witness for the case, was assigned to the case from Jan 20 to Jan 23 last year. The case was then reassigned to Marzuki Mokhtar from the Petaling Jaya IPD, as directed by the Selangor police chief, to avoid accusations bias.

Zainal said he only handed over the vomit swab and two bottles of water which he confiscated from the scene to Marzuki on Jan 28 adding that besides the bottles, he did not confiscate the station diary or duty roster from the Taipan USJ police station.

Postmortem delayed

Zainal testified that he also witnessed the postmortem conducted on the deceased at Hospital Serdang on Jan 21 saying that he was unaware of a commotion involving Kugan’s family at the hospital the night before.

He told the court that the postmortem which was scheduled for 8am, was however postponed to 2 pm because Kugan’s family had wanted to appoint observers. It was further delayed to 7.30pm because the family was not at the hospital to identify the body.

a kugan murdered assaulted indian youth The trial before judge Aslam Zainuddin will continue tomorrow with Zainal completing his testimony followed by the second investigating officer and final prosecution witness, Marzuki.

Police constable N Navindran, 28, has pleaded not guilty on Oct 1, 2009 to a charge of causing grievous hurt to Kugan, 23. He is charged with committing the offence at the interrogation room of the Taipan police station, USJ, Subang Jaya, at 7am on Jan 16, 2009.

He has been charged under Section 331 of the Penal Code which carries a jail term of 10 years and a fine upon conviction. Navindran also pleaded not guilty to two alternative charges of causing hurt to Kugan at the same time and place under Section 330 of the Penal Code.