In the wake of Kugan Anathan's death in the police custody, the MIC Youth today set up a watchdog committee to monitor and prevent such deaths from happening in the future.

t mohan The Youth wing's coordinator T Mohan told Malaysiakini that the committee would consist of 10 people, the majority of whom were lawyers.

The committee will be headed by lawyer SP Muthuvelu, said Mohan.

The formation of the committee was discussed and agreed by the MIC Youth in a council meeting this morning.

"Muthuvelu will be the chairperson on the committee. He will be assisted by seven other lawyers," said Mohan.

He added that the Youth wing's secretary C Shivarraj and another person would be the two representative of the party in the committee.

"We wanted independent people in the committee. Of the eight lawyers, four of them are from non-governmental organisations," he added.

He further said that the main purpose of the committee was to look into custodial deaths and to give feedback to the government on how to stop such deaths from happening again.

"The committee has been given three weeks to compile a list and conduct a research of past custodial deaths. We want to get to the root of this problem...to find out why it happens, especially to youths from the Indian community.

"And as soon as the committee has compiled a list of previous cases and our findings on the reasons for these cases, a memorandum will be submitted to the government and the police," he said.

Aim is to stop custodial deaths

Mohan also said that the committee would take a keen interest in the Kugan case.

"We want the committee to tell us how the family can be compensated and what else could be done to help them."

However he said the main thrust of the committee was to make sure that no more persons end up dead while in police detention.

"For starters this committee will be watching the police closely in the event there is another custodial death. In the long run, the committee hopes to put up workable proposals to ensure there are no more custodial deaths," he said.

s vellpaari samy vellu son The Youth wing's advisor S Vell Paari told Malaysiakini that the objective of the committee was to ensure that the youth wing was playing its role in protecting the Indian community.

"We can't be doing things on ad hoc basis, trying to pool people every time something like Kugan's case happens.

"That's why we wanted this committee to be there on a permanent basis to look on such matters, to see how we can avoid them from happening altogether," he said.

Kugan died on Jan 20 while he was being questioned by the police at the Taipan police station in Subang Jaya. He was arrested five days earlier to be questioned for the theft of luxury cars.