For the second day in a row, the judicial inquest to determine the identity of a body lying in the University Malaya Medical Centre mortuary heard about the search and rescue efforts mounted to locate missing police detainee G Francis Udayappan.

Special Malaysian Disaster Assistance and Rescue Team (Smart) officer Sargent Khairuddin Jamaludin told Kuala Lumpur magistrate Nazran Mohd Sham, who is acting as coroner, that his team performed a 'zig-zag' operation along the Klang River for 100 meters from the point where Francis' had allegedly jumped to escape from the Brickfields police headquarters.

Repeating almost the same scenario drawn by his colleague yesterday, Khairuddin said his unit of seven spent 90 minutes on the morning of April 20, 2004 in a futile search for the detainee.

The first operation conducted by Smart chief inspector Khairul Zaman Ishak took place four days earlier, immediately after Francis had allegedly escaped.

Khairuddin said his unit was forced to scour the river bed with their feet while hanging on to a rope anchored to a nearby tree, as the murkiness of the river water did not allow them to see anything.

Dangerous conditions

The officer, who earlier gave a lengthy narration of his real-life experiences and training in search and rescue operations here and abroad to DPP Faizah Mohd Salleh, also said he had found conditions on that day too dangerous for diving.

This despite the preparedness of his team members who were ready with the proper equipment, as the strong river current and the murkiness of the water posed dangers that he did not want to expose his unit to, he said

"We were hanging on to the rope in the water, each person two meters apart using their feet (to scour the river bed). There were some shallow parts as well as deep parts, but there were strong (under)currents. Without the rope, we would have been swept away.

"We had to feel the floor with our feet. If the victim was stuck, we would have felt his body, as we could feel all kinds of objects such as plastic. We were not able to see anything if we just relied on our visual senses," he added.

Ending the operation at 12:30 pm, Khairuddin said his unit then proceeded to Klang River's rubbish trap at Section 24, Shah Alam, where conditions were again adverse for any diving operation.

"It just so happened that the machine operating the rubbish trap was out of service. The situation was bad and unsafe for divers. The rubbish, which filled the water surface, was so thick at the banks that we could stand. In the middle, it was too dangerous," he added.

Khairuddin said the search for Francis in Shah Alam, where they merely examined the surface of the river, lasted less than an hour.

Unwise to rely on visual estimates

When answering questions by lawyer Ravi Nekoo, who is acting for Francis' mother G Sara Lily, Khairuddin conceded that it would have been wiser to call the meteorological department or irrigation authorities to determine the depth of the river instead of relying on visual estimates.

He also admitted that the chances of finding Francis would have been higher if the second search was conducted the day following the alleged escape on April 16, but said the effectiveness of this "depends on the current of the river."

Sara Lily has long claimed that her son died while in police custody and his body was dumped in the Klang River. Police, however, alleged that he had jumped into the river when escaping.

A DNA test conducted by the police using Sara's blood and bone marrow sample and with a similar sample taken from the body in UMMC failed to reveal a match.

The Attorney-General's Chambers has since allowed her request for an independent DNA test to be conducted but she has faced problems in doing so.

Sara had previously identified the remains as that of her 24-year-old son based on a tattoo and tooth deformity.

The hearing continues tomorrow.