Minister Paul Low's rationale that the Enforcement Agency Integrity Commission (EAIC) is sufficient to address police abuse has drawn flak as the commission is a "powerless substitute".

"We are appalled that despite the high incidence of deaths in custody, the government has now publicly rejected the formation of the IPCMC.

NONE "The formation of IPCMC was a key recommendation of the 2005 Royal Police Commission report," PKR vice-president N Surendran ( left ) said in a statement today.

The EAIC has no prosecution or other powers, Surendran said, to effectively act on cases of police abuse, as the body could only make recommendations to police disciplinary organs or to the public prosecutor.

"The proposed IPCMC has wide-ranging powers and will be an effective check on police misconduct and lawlessness.

"The fact that the government has refused to implement the IPCMC proves that it has no real interest or political will to curb the excesses of  the police force," he said.

Earlier this month, the death of N Dharmendran ,who had been detained by the Kuala Lumpur police after going to the station to lodge a report, sparked renewed calls for the IPCMC.

NONE Less than a week after Dharmendran's death on May 21 another custodial death took place in Penang, the seventh in five months.

The police have also been criticised for not suspending the four officers suspected to be linked to Dharmendran's death, classified as murder.

While Home Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi today agreed with calls for the officers, who are now on desk duty, to be suspended, he warned the move may "demoralise" the force.

‘Govt to blame for deaths'

Surendran blamed the government's refusal to act decisively to set up the IPCMC as leading to more custodial deaths.

"The refusal of the government to implement this recommendation has been the direct cause of the increasing numbers of deaths in police custody,

"In the absence of an independent oversight body, rogue police personnel believe they can beat, torture or kill suspects with impunity. The government has blood on its hands," he said.

NONE Surendran pointed out that despite the horrific ordeal suffered by Dharmendran ( left ), said to have been "brutally beaten and tortured to death with staplers" as confirmed by the pathologist, no officer has been charged.

"No police personnel has been arrested and no charge has been brought, even though it has been nine days since the pathologist's findings."

The 2005 RCI mooted the IPCMC that was to have wide-ranging powers to tackle abuse of power and corruption in the police force.

However, the police opposed the move and pressured for the plan to be scrapped, which was done and replaced with the EAIC, a watered-down version with no enforcement power.

Ironically, a day before Dharmendran's murder, former chief justice Abdul Hamid Mohamad at a forum questioned the effectiveness of the EAIC, which he said had ordered only one disciplinary action and two warnings to civil servants between its formation in September 2011 and the end of 2012.