PETALING JAYA, July 13 — Putrajaya is forging ahead with the appeal of the civil suit won by the family of A. Kugan, who died in police detention, in a bid to muffle the call for the Independent Police Complaints and Misconduct Commission (IPCMC), family lawyer N. Surendran (picture) alleged yesterday.
Despite the warnings of a backlash if it decides to contest the emotive decision, the federal government has filed a notice of appeal against the landmark ruling, which was yesterday served on the family through Surendran.
“It is clear that the appeal has political motives and is related to the ongoing public clamour for the Independent Police Complaints and Misconduct Commission to be set up,” the Padang Serai MP was quoted as saying by news portal Malaysiakini.
“Justice (VT) Singham himself had urged the setting-up of the IPCMC in his landmark judgment,” the Pakatan Rakyat (PR) leader said.
On July 1, Home Minister Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi announced the government’s intention to appeal even as Malaysians bay 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 pressured the government to act against allegations of police abuses, and demanded a total revamp of current avenues to check hard-handed tactics used by enforcement authorities against detainees in lock-ups.
While agreeing that the government has the “legal right” to appeal the matter, Surendran said the Najib administration must first answer several key points raised by High Court judge Singham when delivering his verdict last month — 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 also said the appeal was set to put the family through the legal grinder once more, after having gone through an emotionally draining trial.
“It is obvious that Zahid and the government are indifferent to the terrible suffering of Kugan’s family and to the fate of countless Malaysians who are victims of torture and abuse in police custody,” he added.
Singham was previously reported by news portal The Malaysian Insider as saying 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 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.
