Another Ethnic Malaysian Indian dies in police custody

Another Ethnic Malaysian Indian Dies in Police Custody

http://colour-blind.org/wordpress/?p=398

Raub: Death in custody

A childhood friend who knows Lachumanan for more than 20 years lodged a police report with the help of human rights lawyer N Surendren this afternoon at the Raub police station.

Kanniyappan A/L Manie, 38, told us that the police kicked and slapped him, and one of them used vulgar words such as pig, monitor lizard and dog on them; one of them even threatened them with words like " you will be half-dead" ( "ini hari you setengah mati" .

When he was released on 18 Dec 2007,he learned that his friend has died in the police lockup in Raub.

He did not believe that his friend would killed himself and he now wanted the police to investigate the matter thorougly.

Lachumanan 's sister Sarasvathy,32, made a police report yesterday. She too did not believe that his only brother who has six young children would want to hang himself to death just because he was accused of stealing some scrapped metal (or grass-cutter).

She also said that she and her family members were not informed about the arrest and detention of Lachumanan (on 14 Dec 2004) and only told about the death of her brother on 18 Dec 2007. A second post-mortem was conducted following the police report made by Sarasvathy yesterday. The report should be out next week.
'Deaths in custody' has been an issue highlighted repeatedly by the Policewatch and then Hindraf and one of the reasons why we need to establish IPCMC in this country.
Lachumanan 's death in custody has in a way strengthened the argument of the Hindraf movement as well as the need for a genuine independent committee on misconduct of the police force.

I will bring the Lachumanan case to Opposition Leader lim Kit Siang and other DAP leaders and lawyers for further actions.

Note: I was shunned by the OCPD of Raub Wan Shamsuddin when Surendran and I were trying to ask him a few questions. I was told to shut up! Is that how a senior police officer should behave (on a Hari Korban)? He is certainly one of the worst OCPDs I have ever met. Do you trust an officer to carry out the investigation thoroughly? I don't. That's the reason why I urged the IGP to look into the matter personally in the press conference this afternoon.

Also read

VICTIMISATION BY POLICE

Studies have revealed that Indians form about 60% of ... of the killings of suspects death in police custody and the holding at ...
www.frontlinedefenders.org/ru/node/362

2002: 19 deaths in police custody

http://www.malaysianbar.org.my/content/view/952/2/ Friday, 22 November 2002, 12:00am

The Bar Council refers to the report in The Star, 15 November 2002 concerning the deaths of 19 people while in police custody this year, and also to the recent death of R Sundaraju on 18 November 2002 following an alleged beating by other detainees in the police lock-up.

Such reports are cause for grave concern as they call into question the integrity of the police force in respect of the treatment of detainees and in the administration of police lock-ups. In addition, the reports could generate fear in the public of the police that would be unhelpful for necessary cooperative efforts in investigating and preventing crime.