The High Court has yesterday ordered the lawsuit on the death in police custody case of RS Gunasegaran, who died hours after his arrest on July 16, 2009, for further case management on Aug 30.

The deceased's sister, RS Ganga Gowri, named 12 defendants including police corporal Mohd Faizal Mat Taib, who had allegedly assaulted Gunasegaran, in the suit filed by the law firm of Saibullah MV Nathan & Co on July 13.

She also named seven other police officers from the Narcotics division, Sentul OCPD assistant commissioner Zakaria Pagan, inspector-general of police Musa Hassan, the attending officer to Hospital Kuala Lumpur mortuary and the government as the other defendants.

NONE Ganga Gowri ( right ) is seeking general, special, exemplary and aggravated damages from the defendants.

In her statement of claim, she alleged that at about 3pm, Gunasegaran and three others were arrested by five police officers, including Mohd Faizal.

On arrival at the police station, she claimed Gunasegaran failed to give his urine sample and this resulted in him to be punched and kicked by Mohd Faizal at about 5.30pm the same day.

She claimed this happened in front of other police officers who did not prevent the assault, which was witnessed by the three arrested along with Gunasegaran.

Following Gunasegaran's death, second defendant Rajinder Singh lodged a police report alleging that Gunasegaran had eight straws of heroin.

Open verdict ruling

Ganga Gowri said the facts leading to Gunasegaran's death were retrieved from one of the detainees.

She claimed that the defendants were negligent in their duty, resulting in Guasegaran's death which was listed as "drug related".

To make matters worse, when efforts were made to retrieve Gunasegaran's body for a second post-mortem at Universiti Malaya Medical Centre, Ganga Gowri claimed that the body was in bad condition and emanating a foul smell.

Earlier this month, the Kuala Lumpur High Court upheld the inquest's open verdict finding on Gunasegaran, but acknowledged Mohd Faizal had assaulted the victim.

The court added it could not rule out the possibility of a drug overdose of chloroquine (used in malaria) by the victim. Hence the court backed the open verdict made by the coroner at the magistrate's court.

"The court also takes judicial notice that future custodial death cases should be investigated by other district police rather than from the same district," said judicial commissioner Kamardin Hashim in his decision.