The police said today they would allow a second post-mortem to be carried out on a security guard whose death has turned controversial.

Selangor Police chief Tun Hisan Tun Hamzah said they would allow the post-mortem on C Sugumar should the victim's family wish to.

The first post-mortem results revealed that Sugumar died from clogged arteries and not police violence.  

"The Serdang Hospital followed procedure when conducting the post-mortem last week, but police are not stopping the family from doing a second post-mortem," he told a news conference at the Selangor Police headquarters media centre, in Shah Alam.

Tun Hisan was commenting on a memorandum seeking further and thorough investigation on Sugumar's death while in police custody, which was presented to MIC Youth Chief T Mohan today.

Transparent and fair probe

He said the police investigation was transparent and fair, whereby statements were taken from more than 100 individuals including police personnel, civilians and witnesses.

He said they had also sent investigation papers to the public prosecutor last Tuesday, proposing an inquest on the death.  

Earlier, about 10 MIC Youth representatives presented a memorandum to Selangor Police deputy chief  A Thaiveegan, asking for police cooperation to conduct a second post-mortem on Sugumaran. The memorandum was received by a Selangor CID representative, ASP Nik Shukri Nik Hassan, at the headquarters.

Sugumar is believed to have experienced mental disturbance and allegedly damaged public property with a steel pole on Jan 23.

According to media reports, Sugumar acted aggressively when police personnel tried to arrest and handcuff him before he collapsed and died on the way to the hospital.

However, the reports also mentioned a witness allegedly seeing police stepping on the victim's neck and leaving him to be assaulted by about 20 people who were at a nearby restaurant.

- Bernama