Lawyers for the family of a 20-year-old who died in police custody have alleged that preventive detention under the Emergency Ordinance had been wrongly used against him.

"The Emergency Ordinance was abused by the police and must be used only as a last resort and in exceptional cases and only when all other avenues have been exhausted," the family said in their protest note to police chief Norian Mai.

S Tharma Rajen's family and their lawyer, P Uthayakumar, handed in the note at the Bukit Aman police headquarters in Kuala Lumpur today.

Uthayakumar was accompanied by his co-counsels C Segar, Pathmes Arumugam and Parti Reformasi Insan Malaysian (Prim) pro tem deputy secretary-general RN Rajah.

The note was accepted by Bukit Aman public relations officer ASP Zakaria Pagan on Norian's behalf as he is abroad.

The protest note added that the Emergency Ordinance (Public Order and Prevention of Crime) 1969 is an outdated legislation and not relevant in current circumstances and times.

No comment

The EO 1969 was enacted to quell disturbances and chaos after the breakout of the May 13 racial riots in 1969.

Often seen as a sister act to the Internal Security Act, the EO 1969 allows the police to arrest and detain up to a period of 60 days any person who may be suspected of acting prejudicially to public order or whose detention is necessary for the"suppression of violence, or the prevention of crimes involving violence".

"This detention under the Emergency Ordinance is unlawful, void in law, abuse of police powers and done in bad faith," the protest note added.

When contacted, deputy city police chief Dell Akbar Khan refused to speak on the matter.

"I have no comment on this matter. Please ask my chief police officer Syed Abdul Rahman Syed Abdul Kadir [for comment]," Dell said.

When pointed out that he had been making statements on this matter to other press, Dell said, "I give comments to whomever I like."

Meanwhile, Syed Abdul Rahman could not be reached for comment for the past few days.

Postmortem report

Tharma Rajen, a waiter from Kuala Lumpur, was arrested on April 8 for suspected gang activities at the city police headquarters before having his remand extended and sent to police lockups in Brickfields, Cheras and finally Putrajaya where he was detained under the EO.

He was later pronounced dead at the Putrajaya hospital last Friday. Police have denied foul play and said Tharma Rajen had been in the hospital since June 9 for a lung infection.

The family have however alleged that Tharma Rajen died of police negligence and said they were not informed of his condition until June 16.

Until today, they have yet to get a copy of the postmortem report which stated the cause of death as pneumonia. An independent finding released yesterday however said it was Tuberculosis.

Since Tuesday, the family have also been waiting for Kuala Lumpur High Court judge Mohd Ghazali Mohd Yusoff to make a judicial review on Kajang Magistrate Azahaniz Teh's refusal to let them to have the report.