Kugan's mom sues cops, case still in limbo

More than four months have passed since the 21-year-old detainee breathed his last in a police station.

The case made headlines when a damning video-clip of Kugan Ananthan's remains surfaced.

The graphic recording detailed severe lacerations on his body, lending credence to the family's claim that he was beaten to death by the police.

The case was classified as murder and 11 policemen were subsequently re-assigned to desk duties. Investigations have been wrapped up, but nobody has been charged.

Refusing to let the matter rest, Kugan's mother today filed a suit against the police for seizing items from the office of Universiti Malaya Medical Centre (UMMC) pathologist Dr Prashant N Sambekar.

Prashant had performed the second autopsy which revealed that the youth had been beaten, burnt and starved.

IGP, CID chief named in suit

N Indra filed the suit at the Kuala Lumpur High Court this morning accompanied by lawyer, N Surendran.

The suit named four police officers, including Inspector-General of Police Musa Hassan and CID director Mohd Bakri Zinin, as respondents.

The other two are Petaling Jaya district police chief Arjunaidi Mohammed and the officer who raided the pathologist's office, ASP Mohd Marzukhi Mohd Mokhtar.

Kugan's family had sought a second post-mortem, after rejecting the findings of the first conducted by Dr Abdul Karim Tajuddin of Serdang Hospital which concluded that Kugan had died from "fluid accumulation" in his lungs.

After Prashant released the second provisional post-mortem report, preparations were made to send samples to Australia in order to conduct a toxicology test.

The test will determine the level of drugs and toxins in Kugan's body and complete the post-mortem report.

Doc's office raided

But on April 6, the police raided Prashant's office and seized the specimens after a search warrant was produced to the hospital authorities.

The evidence that were seized includes specimens (bodily fluids, tissue samples), photographs, documents and other materials relating to the post-mortem done by the pathologist.

Speaking to reporters after the suit was filed, Surendren stated that all the samples seized belonged to the mother.

"The owner of the bodily samples is the mother. The police don't own Kugan's tissues. UMMC was holding the tissue samples on the mother's permission so how can the police seize it?" he asked.

Surendran also questioned the motive for the seizure claiming that the authorities were well aware that the private post mortem needed one more test to be completed.

"Months of careful preparations had to be done (in order to send the samples to Australia).

"Suddenly, the authorities come and seize everything even though they know for a complete post mortem report it is imperative that the samples (be) sent for testing," he said.

'We want justice'

Surendran also said the police have not provided a copy of the search warrant to him, Indra and UMMC despite requests having been made.

"What is wrong with giving us the search warrant? We are entitled to see the search warrant," he said.

He said all three parties have submitted their applications both verbally and in writing but to no avail and this has caused the delay in filing the suit.

According to Surendran, the pathologist's notes were also taken away.

The lawyer also questioned what the IGP, home minister and attorney-general are doing since "not a single person has been charged" in connection with Kugan's death.

Kugan's father, G.Ananthan, added that the family only wants justice.

"How long more should we wait? He may be gone but we want to know why this happened? Even if he was guilty, send him to court not kill him. I just don't know what to say anymore," he said.

Kugan had died on Jan 20 at the USJ Taipan police station, five days after he was picked up in connection with a car theft case.