The family of deceased Cheah Chin Lee and their lawyer were today allowed to visit to the lock-up of the the Tanjung Tokong police station, where he was detained before he died in custody last August.

However, they came out baffled and had more questions instead of answers surrounding Cheah's death.

The police claimed that one of the books, which is pertinent to the activities of detainees in the lock-up, was missing due to a recent fire incident at the station, said lawyer V Visvanathan.

Several items, including the detainees’ registry (Buku Daftar), they said, were “conveniently missing”.

Visvanathan (left in photo ) said the identity of eight other detainees in the five cells in the police station when Cheah was there - who are potential witnesses - could not be ascertained.

“This is strange, strange, strange. They can’t determine who were inside. That book is very, very important in actually determining how many suspects were in lock-ups Numbers 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9,” Visvanathan said when met outside the police station.

“Now they don’t know who were in cells 5 to 8. They only know Cheah was in No 9,” he added.

Visvanathan said the police gave him a list of names of the detainees, but, “conveniently, they are foreigners and cannot be traced now”.

He is also surprised with the conditions of the other records kept at the police station.

“These were just pieces of paper, not even a book,” he said.

Police record-keeping 'shocking'

Visvanathan urged the police to buck up, saying he was “shocked” to see the condition of the police’s record-keeping.

He described the situation as “ridiculous”, adding that he had expected the force to keep proper documents and proper entries, especially when there is a custodial death case.

“The best part is that the CCTV recordings they gave us only showed one portion, when Cheah was inside the cell, and that, too, was grainy,” Visvanathan said.

“Earlier, they also showed us photographs of Cheah, after the hanging, where he was shown strangely clinging on to the cell bars, as if clinging for dear life.

“Everything else, from the point of entry up to the lock-up, the police say is not available, as the recordings had been overwritten,” he added.

“They should have known that the moment he died, there would be an investigation and everything should be kept intact,” he stressed.

Visvanathan was given a tour of the lock-up  about 11.15am with Cheah’s family members, led by his aunt Leanne Cheah, in the company of police officers Muhammed Rafi Hussain and RF Muhammad Hafeez Zainuddin, coroner Umadevi Loganathan and deputy public prosecutor Edward Chan.

Muhammad Rafi was in charge of the station while Muhammad Hafeez was in charge of the lock-up during Cheah’s detention.

‘Cells extremely hot and humid’

Visvanathan described the cells as “extremely hot and humid”, with no window and only a squat toilet.

Cheah was arrested on Aug 13, 2012, around midnight for suspected motorcycle theft at a flat in Tanjung Tokong.

After he had his urine tested for drugs at the Jalan Pattani police station, he was taken to the Tanjung Tokong police station around 5am.

After 20 minutes in the lock-up, he was found hanging on his cell bar, in police claimed to be suicide.

However, his family is not happy with the claim and demanded an inquest and the hearing started yesterday.

Visvanathan said the police personnel involved have a lot of answering to do, especially with regard to their records.

Even the magistrate handling was shocked at the manner in which records were kept, asking, “Is that how you file?” Visvanathan added.

Still, Visvanathan said it was possible for Cheah to commit suicide as “anything is possible”.

However, he still demanded to be given the CCTV recording that showed Cheah being taken into the station, where he then allegedly hung himself.

“This is so that the family and I can be convinced of what happened. It is such a simple thing. Now, we have many unaccounted stuff like Cheah’s motorcycle and house keys and mobile phone,” he said.

Visvanathan said police had a hard time explaining in court about the “missing items”.

One of the police personnel said in the inquiry that nothing was seized from Cheah when he was detained, Visvanathan said.

But surprisingly a month after his death, upon the family lodging a police report and pressuring the police, Cheah's missing mobile phone suddenly appeared, he added.

“So someone may have taken it in the beginning. It does not make sense. Things are getting interesting and at the coming inquest session, the police will be questioned on this,” he stressed.

The two-day inquest, which started yesterday and continues today, has been adjourned to May 19 to 21.