KUALA LUMPUR, July 1 — Putrajaya can expect widespread backlash if it proceeds with plans to appeal the civil suit judgment on A. Kugan’s death with opposition lawmakers already threatening to protest the move in Parliament or on the “public stage”.

The appeal decision, announced yesterday by Home Minister Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, comes at a time when Malaysians are baying for blood over recent reports on the alarming number of deaths in police custody — cases similar to Kugan’s controversial death in 2009.

In the past month, federal lawmakers and civil rights groups have been pressuring the government into acting against abusive cops and demanding a total revamp of current avenues to check hard-handed tactics used by enforcement authorities against detainees in lock-ups.

PKR’s Padang Serai MP N. Surendran told The Malay Mail Online that if Putrajaya insists on appealing the Kugan verdict, which fingered the police for the youth’s death, he would have no qualms taking the fight to the “public stage”, the platform where most opposition battles are often fought.

While agreeing that the government has the “legal right” to appeal the matter, the Pakatan Rakyat (PR) leader said the Najib administration must first answer several key points raised by High Court judge V.T. Singham when delivering his verdict last Wednesday — that Inspector-General of Police Tan Sri Khalid Abu Bakar was liable to misfeasance in the 2009 custodial death; and that one officer alone could not have inflicted all that injury on Kugan.

Surendran wants the government to abort its plan to appeal the Kugan civil suit judgment.

The ruling not only put the police under the spotlight again for alleged power abuse but also invoked calls for the reopening of Kugan’s investigation to hunt down all those who may have been responsible for his torture and subsequent death.

“But no, no answer by Zahid to the judgment. No contrition from him,” Surendran said when contacted yesterday.

“Zahid’s remarks reflect the clear disconnect between an indifferent government and concerns from people on the ground.

“Zahid clearly does not know how to differentiate between the right and the wrong... it is shocking,” he said, adding that Kugan’s grieving family should not be subjected to yet another lengthy court battle.

Surendran went on to demand that the government abort its appeal plans, warning against widespread backlash, not merely from PR lawmakers but from Kugan’s family and supporters, and rights movements nationwide.

“We will take it to the public stage,” he said, without elaborating.

Another PR lawmaker, the DAP’s Tony Pua, said the government must take a stand on the judgment handed down, particularly on the complicity of Khalid, who was then Selangor police chief.

“There is no point in appealing the case if they do not plan on coming clean on the truth behind it,” he told The Malay Mail Online when contacted.

But Pua added that to be fair to the government, it was yet to be known the nature of its planned appeal and whether it was to challenge Singham’s entire judgment.

“If they feel the judgment was wrong, they must provide the evidence to show why they feel this way,” he said.

He said he would also “make some noise in Parliament” over the controversial issue, arming his argument with the findings of fact by the judge in Kugan’s highly-publicised case.

Pua, along with several other PR lawmakers, had last week demanded Khalid’s resignation after Singham delivered his judgment in the Kuala Lumpur High Court. The senior judge has since retired.

Opposition Leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim also responded in kind, saying he had filed a motion in the Dewan Rakyat for Ahmad Zahid to give an “immediate strong response” and “clear information on what happened.”

“We want a clear answer now from the minister,” said Anwar.

Singham was reported by news portal The Malaysian Insider as saying last Wednesday that the injuries on Kugan, a suspected car thief, could not have been inflicted by one police officer, after senior officers pleaded ignorance.

Former Police Constable V. Navindran, the sole person charged over Kugan’s death, was sentenced last year to three years’ jail for causing hurt to the 23-year-old. Navindran is appealing the conviction.

In the ruling over the negligence suit brought by Kugan’s family, the court reportedly awarded the claimants RM751,700 in damages and RM50,000 in costs.

The historic High Court ruling comes after three policemen were charged recently with murdering N. Dhamendran on May 21 while the 32-year-old former lorry driver was under remand in the city police contingent headquarters here.

Including Dhamendran, nine deaths in police custody have occurred this year so far. The latest case is that of a 33-year-old Japanese man who died in his cell at the USJ8 police station lock-up on June 8.

Since 2006, the Bar Council and civil society have been pushing for the implementation of the Independent Police Complaints and Misconduct Commission (IPCMC) — which was mooted by a royal commission led by former Chief Justice Tun Mohamed Dzaiddin Abdullah — but to no avail as it was shot down by the top brass of the police.