A police abuse watchdog has brought attention to yet another case of custodial death but this time with the victim's sister as witness to the assault preceding his death.

Police watch and human rights committee chairperson RN Rajah said the latest case involved 22-year-old L Yoges Rao who died on Dec 11 after being held overnight at a police station in Sitiawan, Perak.

According to Rajah, Yoges Rao was first arrested on Dec 10 at Taman Raja Muda Musa II in Sitiawan on suspicions of drug-related activities.

He was then brought to the home of his sister, Mahaletchumy (with whom he lived), by six plainclothes police personnel in two patrol cars and allegedly assaulted while in the house.

Shouting in pain

"A policeman by the name of Shanmugan started punching Yoges Rao several times in the stomach and abdomen area in the presence of Mahaletchumy," claimed Rajah at a press conference this afternoon.

"Three of the six policemen then took Yoges Rao into one of the rooms and locked the room from inside. Mahaletchumy could hear her brother shouting in pain and pleading with the police to stop assaulting him," he added.

The police watch chairperson said the youth was brought out of the room some half an hour later and was seen vomiting blood by his sister.

Rajah said Mahaletchumy then lost contact with her brother before being told the next day that he had died in police custody.

"Mahaletchumy had gone to the Sitiawan police station to get details of her brother but was told that no one by his name was being detained by the police. She was (later) told that Yoges Rao had vomited blood and fainted when he was brought to court for a remand order the next day."

Despite hints of abuse on Yoges Rao's body, Rajah said the burial permit for the youth merely stated that he had died of stomach ulcer.

Rajah then displayed photographs of the victim which allegedly showed a large bruise on his forehead, a cut on his lip and various marks on the soles of his feet said to be the result of cigarette burns.

Eleventh case

On the family's next recourse, Rajah said Mahaletchumy had lodged a police report on the death at the Air Tawar police station.

"The family may want to take action against the police but they have some problems since the lawyer that they appointed backed out from the case," he said.

Meanwhile, police watch legal adviser N Surendran said the death of Yoges Rao showed that the authorities had done nothing about the high incidence of custodial death despite constant efforts by activists to highlight the problem.

"This is the eleventh case this year and the trend shows that the police have not been pursuing their investigations (into police abuse complaints) seriously. An independent team has to be set up immediately to find out what happened that cause the death of the detainee," he said.

He added that the police had still not announced their findings on investigations into two other cases of death at the hands of the police which took place over the past two months.

One was over the death of three youths - V Vikines, Puvaneswaran and T Kathivaran - who died during a police shootout in Nilai, Negeri Sembilan.

The other case involved 52-year-old security guard G Veerasamy who died while he was held in a police lock-up in Pandan Indah, Kuala Lumpur.

Meanwhile when contacted, Perak deputy CID chief Supt Rahman Hashim said the police are investigating the report lodged by Mahaletchumy.

"(But) as far as we know, he died of natural causes due to stomach ulcer. He died on the way to the hospital," he said.