The Enforcement Agency Integrity Commission (EAIC) will hold public hearings to investigate the death in custody of S Balamurugan, said commission chairperson Yaacob Md Sam.

He told Malaysiakini that the matter was decided at a meeting on Thursday, and the hearings would begin in late May.

“We have already fixed a few dates for the hearing, and we are going to announce it,” he said when met after he hosted the EAIC’s media appreciation night dinner.

Balumurugan, 44, was found dead at the North Klang district police headquarters on Feb 8.

His family’s lawyer Gerard Lazarus had claimed that this was despite a magistrate’s order for Balamurugan to be released or brought to a hospital because of severe bleeding in his face.

He alleged that a police inspector told him that there were instructions not to comply with the magistrate’s order.

The EAIC had announced that it had formed a task force to investigate the case on the day following Balamurugan’s death.

The police are also investigating the case under Section 345 of the Penal Code, which deals with the wrongful confinement of person for whose freedom a writ has been issued.

According to a parliamentary written reply by Home Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, there had been 284 deaths in custody between 2000 and 2016. Only two of these had been attributed to police-inflicted injuries.

Other causes include HIV, heart attack, brain haemorrhage, suicide, and fights among inmates.

Meanwhile, Yaacob (photo) told journalists attending the appreciation dinner that the EAIC is drafting a policy paper to enhance the integrity of the enforcement agencies involved in border security.

He said the EAIC is now seeking input from all stakeholders and the paper will be expected to be ready by the end of next month.

“We are now nearly at the end of gathering all the necessary information for the paper,” he said.

In his speech, Yaacob urged heads of government department and enforcement agencies to take a more open approach when fielding questions from the media, or at least use their official Facebook accounts to provide information on matters that are of public interest.

“If the head of department keeps quiet, it would only reinforce the public’s negative perceptions towards the agency,” he said.

He said he also noticed that some agencies had set up Facebook accounts to interact with the public, but often failed to give the appropriate response to their queries.