The judicial inquest to ascertain the identity of a highly-decomposed body lying in a morgue - found almost seven months ago - discussed the details of the police's failed search and recovery attempts at the Kuala Lumpur magistrate's court today.

Resuming the proceedings after a two-week break, magistrate Nazran Mohd Sham - acting as coroner - listened to testimonies from two police officers, namely Sergeant Major Razak Sulaiman who headed the search team and Lance Corporal Zamri Zaid who claimed his initial rescue attempt on May 23 failed.

DPP Ishak Mohd Yusoff questioned Razak on the details of the search and recovery mission which began a half hour after Brickfields district police detainee G Francis Udayappan had escaped on April 16.

Razak, 48, who supervises detectives at Brickfields' Criminal Investigation Division, told the court that he had heard shouts leading him out of his office, which faces the Klang River situated behind the station, where he noticed police officers gathering.

"After being told by Zamri and Sergeant Chan Kim Chai that a detainee had escaped, I immediately contacted the office to get help from the fire brigade's rescue unit, the police's 'Smart Team' and a police detection unit," said Razak responding to the DPP's questions.

Lengthy affair

He was assigned to head the ' Ops Cari ' which began at 4.05pm on April 16 and ended on April 26. He told the court that a bulk of the time during that 10 days was spent looking through parts of the river point , in which Francis allegedly jumped into, in his escape bid.

"The river's currents were strong and because it had just rained, it was cloudy. The search went on till late and we covered about 400 metres, from where the escapee jumped into the river, till the rubbish catchment area near Kg Haji Abdullah Hukum," added Razak.

However Francis could not be found. This was the case for the next nine days of the operation. The rescue team had set up base at the catchment area with divers looking beneath the waters and officers on sampans (boats) and motorcycles scouting the length of the river bank.

The process was similar from day to day with the operations beginning at 11am and lasting till about 8pm. The court was told that occasionally the search went as far as the river's final and largest catchment area in Section 18, Shah Alam.

Razak however, seemed forgetful of certain details of the operation and had to be prompted by the DPP who supplied the officer with a copy of a police report (statement 112) which Razak had himself earlier made.

At this juncture, lawyer M Puravelan - who is assisting the inquest in his capacity as Francis' mother's legal representative - requested the court for a copy of the statement, to which it was denied.

Puravelan had, before the proceedings began, made a similar request for copies of relevant statements to the inquest and requested a week to submit written submissions as to why he should be furnished with all the evidence.

Continuing, Razak explained how the search team also scouted around houses near the river area, for there was a chance, he said, that Francis - who according to his family does not swim - may have swam out of the river and sought refuge in the houses.

"We also conducted surveillance at Francis' house in Sentul, in case he turned up there," he added.

He admitted that the operation had taken breaks on April 19, 23,24 and 25, effectively meaning only six days out of the 10 were spent trying to locate Francis - who was initially nabbed for a petty theft - at the river's area.

High jump

Meanwhile, the court's first witness today, officer Zamri, explained under grilling from Puravelan, how he had attempted to rescue and re-apprehend Francis when he chased after the alleged escapee by jumping down nine feet from a platform onto a gravelled area near the river.

Zamri, who was unsure of exact facts and figures during the course of questioning, said he could not remember who provided him with the rope that he used to fling to a submerging Francis - who allegedly denied the gesture - but figured that it took around a minute or two for the rope to arrive at the scene.

Compiled measurements show that it is 35 feet from the station - where the rope possible came from - to the platform, nine feet from the platform to its bottom and another 40 over feet to the river-bank.

The inquest, which arose after Francis's mother identified the decomposed body in the morgue as that of Francis but later failed to match police DNA tests with that of the body's, continues tomorrow afternoon.