Police's 'no sudden death report filed' irks Suaram

Rights group Suaram has criticised Sentul police chief ACP Zakaria Pagan’s statement in court that no sudden death report was not lodged with regard to custodial death victim R Gunasegaran.

Describing this as “unacceptable”, Suaram asked: "Till date, there were no reports made by the police regarding the death of Gunasegaran. How is this possible?"

Yesterday, Zakaria told the Kuala Lumpur High Court that the sudden death report was not the police's responsibility and instead passed the buck to medical officers.

He revealed this during the hearing of Gunasegaran's widow Ganga Gowri's (photo) civil suit against the government and the police.

Zakaria also confirmed in court that the police were interrogating Gunasegaran and three other suspects until after midnight.

When it was pointed out by the plaintiff's lawyer M Visvanathan that lock-up rules stated that suspects cannot be interrogated after 6.30pm, Zakaria defended the action of the force, claiming that it was done to expedite the investigation process.

He also said that the suspects were not in the police lock-up, but were instead in transit cells in the Sentul police station.

Gunasegaran, then 32, died between 6.45pm and 7pm at the Sentul police station on July 16 2009, co-incidentally on the same day that another custodial death victim Teoh Beng Hock's body was found near the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC)'s office.

Police have claimed that he had died due to a drug overdose, though his family believes that Gunasegaran died due to police brutality.