VIDEO | 1.10 mins

A 26-year-old man, identified as Chew Siang Giap, has died in the Prison Department’s custody in Batu Gajah, Perak, adding to a steady stream of deaths in police custody this year alone.

His father Chew Ba said he had received a call from the Batu Gajah prison’s rehabilitation centre, informing him of his son’s death at 2.19am on July 15.

In his police report, Chew said he had arrived at the Batu Gajah Hospital at 8.30am that day to identify his son and found “marks” on the body.

NONE “When I identified him, I found black marks which looked like bruises on his ear, shoulder and thigh,” he said in the police report distributed to reporters at the Parliament lobby today by the DAP’s Batu Gajah MP V Sivakumar (left) .

Chew, in the police report, said his son was in good health when transferred to the Batu Gajah prison on July 12.

Sivakumar said Siang Giap had been held in the lock-up at the Kangar police contingent headquarters for 60 days prior to the transfer.

He said the post mortem examination was still underway as at 11.40am today and that prison officials have not informed Chew how his son had died.

"We are asking that (the authorities do) not hide anything," he added.