Rights group Suaram has criticised Sentul police chief ACP Zakaria Pagan’s statement in court that no sudden death report was lodged on custodial death victim R Gunasegaran.

Describing this as “unacceptable”, Suaram asked: "To date, there was no report made by the police regarding the death of Gunasegaran. How is this possible?"

Yesterday, Zakaria told the High Court in Kuala Lumpur that the sudden death report was not the responsibility of the police and instead passed the buck to the medical officers.

NONE He revealed this during the hearing of the civil suit by Gunasegaran's widow Ganga Gowri's ( on the right in picture ) against the government and the police.

Zakaria also confirmed in court that the police were interrogating Gunasegaran and three other suspects until after midnight.

When it was pointed out by the plaintiff's lawyer M Visvanathan that lock-up rules stated that suspects cannot be interrogated after 6.30pm, Zakaria defended the action of the force, claiming that it was done to expedite the investigation process.

He also said that the suspects were not in the police lock-up, but were instead in transit cells in the Sentul police station.

Gunasegaran, then 32, died between 6.45pm and 7pm at the Sentul police station on July 16, 2009, co-incidentally on the same day that another custodial death victim Teoh Beng Hock's body was found near the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC)'s office.

Police have claimed that Gunasegaran died from drug overdose, though his family believes that Gunasegaran died as a result of police brutality.