The inquest into the death of 19-year-old S Tharma Rajen in police custody entered its fifth day today with emotional testimony from the youth's mother, A Selvamony.

She claimed that two hours before he died, her son was handcuffed to his hospital bed despite being in an emancipated condition and not being able to breath properly.

"On April 20 (2002), I received a letter from (investigating officer) G Poniah who said my son was very ill," Selvamony said.

She added when she arrived at the hospital at 7pm, she could not go near her son's bed because she was told by the police to return the next day as it was too late for her to visit.

"This was four or five hours before he died. His breathing was weak. I left at 10pm and he was still handcuffed (to the bed), both hands."

Tharma Rajen died two hours later.

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Selvamony said that the first time she saw her son was five days after his arrest on April 8, and Tharma Rajen had complained he was assaulted and forced to plead guilty to various charges.

She added that she could see blood seeping through his shirt when he was brought to court.

The inquest was shown a picture of the youth taken a week before his arrest.

"He was strong. He played football. He ran. When he was small he had asthma, but not before his arrest. He was not ill then," she said.

Selvamony also said that the police had been repeatedly asked to bring her son to hospital but they had refused.

By the time Tharma Rajen was admitted to hospital in June, he was in deep pain.

However, parts of the mother's testimony, which was made in a mix of Malay and Tamil, remained unclear due to language difficulties.

Selvamony testified that the last time she had seen her son before he was sent to hospital was May 28. However, under further questioning, she repeated twice that the last visit was June 5.

Arms spread wide

Judge Norazmi Mohd Norwawi also queried the manner in which Tharma Rajen was handcuffed, saying that it seemed unlikely that his arms would be spread wide as Selvamony had demonstrated.

Tharma Rajen was arrested on April 3 on suspicion of being involved in illegal activities.

He was placed under Emergency Ordinance a month later. The ordinance allows for 60 days of police interrogation, followed by a renewable two-year detention order.

This is similar to the controversial Internal Security Act, which allows detention without trial.

Tharma Rajen was held for the first half of the 60 day period at Balai Polis Putrajaya and was transferred to Hospital Putrajaya on June 9. He died at around midnight on June 21.

The inquest, which is being held at Sepang magistrates' court will continue next Thursday..