GEORGE TOWN, Aug 13 — Exactly a year after the death of furniture shop assistant Cheah Chin Lee while in police custody, the coroner’s court heard that he was found hanged while holding onto the lockup bar tightly with his left hand.

Pathologist Datuk Dr Bhupinder Singh (picture) told the court this morning that Cheah was gripping the bar tightly with his left hand when found dead hanging from a knotted shirt.

“His fingers were firmly wrapped around the bar of the cell and when I arrive at the scene, rigor mortis had set it that his grip on it was very firm,” he told the court during cross-examination by counsel M. Visvanathan, who is holding a watching brief on behalf of Cheah’s family.

However, the pathologist said based on his own observations and interpretation, he does not believe that someone had “put Cheah up there”.

Based on his observations when he was called to the lockup at the Tanjung Tokong police station at 9.30am on August 13 last year, Dr Bhupinder said Cheah may have climbed up to tie the clothes into a knot in a loop and then climbed up again on his own about two feet off the ground while using his left hand to control his movement.

“In my opinion, I believe that it is very difficult for anybody to put someone of Cheah’s height and weight in that position without any signs of struggle such as injuries to the body,” he said.

He had earlier testified that Cheah had died of asphyxiation with no other signs of injuries except for abrasions on the knees.

Cheah was arrested on August 12 at around midnight to assist in the investigation of a motorcycle theft.

He was detained at the Tanjung Tokong police station but he was found hanged at the lock-up at 5.30am.

His family does not believe Cheah could have taken his own life and had requested that an inquest be held to investigate the cause of Cheah’s death.

The inquest before coroner Umma Devi Loganathan started yesterday.

In the afternoon, a Rela member, Adam Humphrey Loh, testified that he was present at the time Cheah was arrested at the ground floor of a block of flats in Tanjung Bungah.

He told the court that Cheah was seen behaving suspiciously and tinkering with a motorcycle on the night of Aug 12 before he was arrested on the scene by police.

He also testified that he did not notice any sign of injuries on Cheah on that night when he was detained by the police.

Cheah was wearing a shirt and three quarter pants on that night.

The coroner's court adjourned after Loh's testimony and the coroner fixed Oct 7 until Oct 11 for the hearing to continue.

In the next hearing, more witnesses including the policemen who had arrested Cheah will be called in to testify.

There will also be visits with the witnesses to the site of the arrest and also to the lockup where Cheah was found dead.