More than half a dozen family members of a man who was found hanged in a police station on June 17, showed up at the Bukit Aman police headquarters in Kuala Lumpur today accompanied by lawyers and interest groups to demand answers to questions surrounding his death.

Bukit Aman Press Relations Officer ASP Ahmad Nawawi, met the group at the headquarters' entrance to receive their memorandum on the death of R Magesvaran whom police claim had committed suicide in a toilet at the Petaling Jaya police district headquarters building.

His family however doubts the police version of events and believes there was foul play leading up to his demise.

Magesvaran's sister, R Puwaneswari said: "My brother has never had any problems with the police, why would he go all the way to a police station toilet to end his life when he could have done it at home if he really wanted to."

"There are few unanswered questions that we want concrete answers and we want the police to investigate the matter. We know there was a stab wound on my nephew's body along with numerous bruises showing he could have been beaten up" said the deceased's uncle R Balasubramanian.

Three-month wait

Photos of Magesvaran's body, which were submitted together with the memo to the police and showed to the press, showed a 3cm wound on the lower right abdomen and heavy bruises around the area.

"The hospital authorities told us that it was an insertion made during the post mortem but if that's true, then why is that particular wound blue-black unlike the other post mortem insertions?" he asked

"Furthermore why are the authorities refusing to release the post-mortem results and have asked us to wait for three months?" he added.

The post-mortem was conducted at the University Malaya Medical Centre.

Magesvaran was found hanged in the toilet by a canteen operator some six hours after he had apparently gone to police district headquarters to lodge a report.

PJ Utara district deputy police chief Osman Bakar the next day confirmed that the death was a result of hanging and that there was not going to be further investigations into the case. He said Magesvaran had not been detained by the police for any reason and had wanted to lodge a police report on an unspecified matter.

Parti Keadilan Rakyat youth division, the yet to be registered Parti Reformasi Insan Malaysia, the Police Watch and Human Rights Committee, the Hindu Consultative Council and the Indian Consultative Council were amongst those who endorsed the family members' memo today to the inspector-general of police.

Independent team

The memo in part read: "We strongly protest the occurrence of yet another death in police custody. The police did not appear to have conducted a serious investigation into this case and were quick to clear themselves and claim that there was no foul play.'

Magesvaran's family members went on to demand that the police form and name an independent investigation team to throughly probe his death while keeping them and legal advisers informed of progress.

"The police force does not seem to be concerned with this extremely serious problem (deaths in police custody) which has been shaming our nation. We ask all recent cases to be reviewed and action be taken against those found guilty.' the statement further said.

ASP Nawawi told the group that he would pass the memorandum on to his superiors but could not give them a time frame as to when or whether it would be acted upon.

Family members then held up placards calling action and answers from the police before dispersing a few minutes later.

Human rights groups have been monitoring cases of deaths in police custody and most recently have highlighted the case of 24-year-old G Francis Udayyapan a detainee at the Brickfields police station in Kuala Lumpur whose highly decomposed body was found in the Klang River recently.