PETALING JAYA, July 25 ― A Criminal Investigation Department (CID) officer implicated in the custodial death of N. Dhamendran is alleging he is being made a scapegoat in the case that has seen three colleagues charged with murder.

On July 16, SAC Datuk Ku Chin Wah, the head of Kuala Lumpur CID, said an officer named as Insp Hare Krishnan Subramaniam has been put on administrative leave since June 15 in relation to the killing.

This led to Hare being implicated as the fourth suspect in the killing. Hare was absent when three other policemen — Sergeant Jaferi Jaafar and Corporals Mohd Nahar Abd Rahman and Mohd Haswadi Zamri Sahari — were charged.

But in a copy of June 1 police report obtained by news portal Malaysiakini, Hare claimed he had been told to free Dhamendran temporarily on May 21, before learning other officers had allegedly impersonated him and rearrested the suspect.

“Officers made the arrest report using my PRS ID without my approval,” he wrote in his report.

Dhamendran died the same day.

The inspector further alleged his details were appended without his express knowledge to the lockup entry for the day of Dhamendran’s death.

“All the entries of me in the lockup diary are untrue and were done to implicate me and protect certain parties,” the report reads.

The police officer added that he had no part in “beating” Dhamendran but claimed to have knowledge of the guilty party.

Dhamendran had been detained on May 11 over a shooting in Bandar Tun Razak but died 10 days later while still held under remand by the KL police.

Ku had then claimed Dhamendran died due to “breathing difficulties”, before a Hospital Kuala Lumpur autopsy report publicised on June 1 showed that he had died due to severe beating.

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.