S Balamurugan, who died in police custody on Feb 8, was not taken to hospital by the police officer who had submitted the application to remand Balamurugan, after the remand order bid was rejected by a magistrate.

This was despite the magistrate issuing a verbal order to the police officer, Muhammad Nabil Abd Manaf, to do so, after rejecting his application for the remand order.

Nabil said in his testimony before the Enforcement Agencies Integrity Commission (EAIC) inquiry into Balamurugan's death in police custody that he thought the family would pick him up and send him to the hospital.

"I was thinking, since his remand has been denied, he will be handed over to family, so the family will send him to the hospital," Nabil said.

According to lawyer Gerard Lazarus, who had appeared for Balamurugan’s family at the remand hearing, the detainee had vomited blood during the hearing.

Nabil said he did not inform the inspector in charge of the case on the magistrate's order to send Balamurugan to the hospital.

Nabil said the inspector had called him after the remand hearing to ask about the remand status. He had then informed the inspector about Balamurugan's remand being denied, but failed to mention the order to send him to the hospital.

When questioned by one of the lawyers at the inquiry today whether there had been a need to inform the inspector, he replied yes.

He also said that he later saw Balamurugan at the Klang Utara district police headquarters again, after the remand hearing, around 3pm the same day.

Balamurugan was being kept in the same locked room as other detainees, he said, and he recalled that the man was either leaning against a wall or lying down.

The last time he saw Balamurugan, he said, was later that night, when he overheard that the detainee had died and went downstairs to where the body was being kept.

Weakened physical state

Meanwhile, Lazarus described Balamurugan as “very weak”, with his mouth and nose bleeding when he saw him at the remand hearing.

Balamurugan's head was hanging low when he first saw him at the Klang courthouse complex, he said, and he had had to lift up the man's head to identify him. He was also being supported by his fellow detainee.

He said Balamurugan's forehead, eyes and cheeks were swollen.

Lazarus said he had procured a bottle of water for Balamurugan upon his request. He had to hold it up to the man's mouth, he added, and that was when Balamurugan threw up some blood, which fell onto his hand and into the bottle.

"I objected to the remand (for Balamurugan), but (I also said that) if the magistrate wanted to give him a remand, please send him to a hospital," Lazarus recounted at the inquiry today.

There was another detainee at the court who fainted, he said, and the police had called an ambulance for him.

After Balamurugan's remand was rejected, Lazarus thought he could send the man to the hospital in the same ambulance as well, he said.

"But I was told by the escort police that their instructions is to bring him back (to the station)... so that his family can send him to the hospital. I was satisfied by that (explanation)," he said.

The last time he saw Balamurugan, he said, was when he was escorted into the police vehicle to be sent back to the station from the courthouse.

When he found out later that evening that Balamurugan had been re-arrested, he spoke to a police officer who had assured him that the man would be sent to a hospital.

Failure to obey court order

The magistrate, Nik Nur Amalina Mat Zaidan, also said she had noticed Balamurugan's swollen face and closed eyes, and that he had not responded when his name was called during the remand hearing.

"I asked (Nabil) whether Balamurugan had been beaten. Nabil did not answer," she said. Nabil later said he had replied that he did not know.

She said although she had approved the remand for the three other detainees who were arrested for the same case, she rejected Balamurugan's remand, as he only happened to be in the same car as the two men who were wanted by the police when they were all arrested.

"I instructed the investigating officer (Nabil) verbally to bring him to the hospital.

"He didn't say anything, just 'Okay, Madam’," she said.

She also said that although the order had not been written down, it was still a court order that should have been obeyed.

Balamurugan was first arrested on Feb 6, along with two other men who were all in the same car and detained at the Klang Utara police district headquarters.

The remand hearing took place the next day on Feb 7, and it was reported that he died in the early hours of the next day.

A second post-mortem report showed that he was beaten in custody and stated the cause of death as 'coronary artery disease with multiple blunt force trauma'.

Ten police officers at the North Klang district police headquarters are being probed over his death but none have been suspended pending this investigation.