The negligence suit against the police force by five people injured during the 2001 Kampung Medan attacks has come to an end.

The Federal Court in Putrajaya this morning rejected the application for leave by the five to challenge the Court of Appeal's decision that there was not enough evidence to prove police had abdicated their duties.

The application was unanimously rejected, without a ruling on costs, by a five-man bench presided by Ariffin Zakaria, who sat with Richard Malanjum, Hashim Yusoff, Ahmad Maarop and Hasan Lah.

Justice Ariffin said the case involved facts and not law and granting leave would "open the floodgates".

NONE Speaking to journalists later, lawyer M Manogaran ( right ) acknowledged that the Federal Court only deals with issues relating to new legal questions and expansion of the law.

"In cases involving the police, there is something called public policy, so the court cannot allow everybody to start a case. However, Kampung Medan is a unique case and is of public interest," he said.

Manogaran said there was no more recourse for the plaintiffs, but he would request that the Selangor government provides compassion payment to the victims for their suffering.

'Suhakam must hold an inquiry'

"Since the Malaysian Human Rights Commission (Suhakam) had previously refused to hold an inquiry on grounds that the matter was in court, I now ask that it conducts an inquiry," he said.

The victims could still not bring an end to their suffering because they were injured by violent groups in the presence of more than 2,000 members of the police force, he added.

In the unanimous decision in November last year, a three-member Court of Appeal upheld the Kuala Lumpur High Court's dismissal of the suit by the five on grounds that they had failed to prove that police did not fulfill their responsibilities during the incident.

The Court of Appeal also ordered them to pay RM10,000 as costs.

NONE The five injured in the attacks, R Suresh, A Ambalakan, B Janakan Pillai, V Subramaniam and V Muniandy ( right ), had sought damages for gross negligence and breach of statutory duties under the Police Act 1967.

They also sought general damages, special damages, aggravated and exemplary damages.

Two others, A Velappan and P Tamil Selbam, who were among the plaintiffs in the matter before the Court of Appeal, had opted not to pursue the matter.

In the suit, they named former Petaling Jaya police chief Sheikh Mustafa Sheikh Ahmad, former Selangor police chief Nik Ismail Nik Yusof, former inspector-general of police Musa Hassan and the government as respondents.

The plaintiffs claimed that police failed to take appropriate action, causing them to be attacked by a gang of rioters that resulted in their injuries.

They claimed that this came about when they went about their daily chores, after the government gave them an assurance that the situation in their locality was under control, despite it being to the contrary.

According to the suit, the events in 2001 happened between March 8 and 22 in Petaling Jaya South and Batu 12 Puchong.

The Kampung Medan incident is a series of bloody clashes involving ethnic Indians and Malays, resulting in six deaths and scores of people injured.