NST Online 5 March 2009 By : Farrah Naz Karim farrah
PUTRAJAYA: Serdang Hospital yesterday fought back against accusations of a misleading post-mortem on police detainee A. Kugan.
Its director, Dr Mohd Norzi Ghazali, said a mob of about 50 people had barged in and tampered with the body before any post-mortem was carried out by the hospital's forensics pathologist.
Dr Norzi said his medical officers sought cover for two hours in a connecting room of the mortuary as they feared being hurt by the mob.
The post-mortem, he said, was supposed to take place at 8am the next day as police personnel had to be present during the procedure.
A report on the incident at the morgue by the hospital authorities stated that Kugan's fully-clothed body was in a body bag, which had been torn open by the mob. The medical officers also reported they were shocked to see a pool of Kugan's blood on the floor of the mortuary.
This, the report said, indicated that wounds on the body could have been inflicted after his death.
The report also stated that the 22-year-old had died of pulmonary oedema or fluid in the lungs. It also stated that there were no fractures on his body or damage to his vital organs.
However, Kugan's family lawyer, N. Surendran, said the second post-mortem conducted by University Malaya Medical Centre's pathologist Dr Prashant N. Samberkar revealed that his death was due to kidney failure caused by muscle injury that might be attributed to physical, chemical or biological factors.
Dr Norzi told the New Straits Times that both post-mortems were "weak evidence" in the case as they had been conducted after the body had been tampered with.
On claims that Kugan, a suspected car thief, had been starved for six days before he died, Dr Norzi said a person's stomach would be cleared of traces of food about four hours after his last meal.
Attorney-General Chambers' prosecution division head Tun Majid Tun Hamzah received the second post-mortem report from Surendran yesterday.
Tun Majid said comparisons would be made between the reports for a just decision. "This won't be long, hopefully within this month. The chambers will inform the public of its decision."
Kugan died at the Subang Taipan police station while being interrogated on Jan 20, six days after he was arrested in connection with car thefts.
Kapar member of parliament S. Manikavasagam, who accompanied Surendran to the chambers, said a police report would be lodged against the Serdang pathologist either tomorrow or Saturday "over a false and misleading post-mortem".
In Kuala Lumpur, Deputy Inspector-General of Police Tan Sri Ismail Omar said police would wait for the A-G's decision before taking action against the 11 policemen involved in Kugan's death.
Terrible images of Kugan
Friday, 06 March 2009 06:56AM © Malay Mail
by Haris Hussain & Nevash Nair
ALMOST two months after A. Kugan died in the Subang Taipan police lock-up, his mother, N. Indra, still cries herself to sleep every night. Now, sleep is even more elusive after she came to know about the pain and suffering he endured before he died, five days after he was arrested on Jan 15 in connection with police investigations into a series of luxury car thefts. Every time she closes her eyes, she sees her son’s bruised, battered and burnt body.
In an interview with Malay Mail, Indra said she is still unable to accept the fact that her son is gone, so much so her husband, R. Ananthan, refused to show her the second post-mortem report prepared y the independent pathologist hired by the family. The report was released on Monday. Ananthan relented only after Indra insisted. What she saw shocked her. “I have never laid a finger on my son but these heartless policemen beat him to death. Only a mother knows how I feel. The pain is so unbearable that I wish I were dead,” she alleged of the case that the Attorney-General has reclassified as murder.
My life has changed forever. He is my first-born. The manner in which I lost him makes it even more difficult for me to deal with. I did not carry him for nine months in my womb just so that someone can torture him this way. “There were signs that he was starving before he died. He was never hungry when he was with me. I would cook him his favourite dish, fried chicken and nuggets, whenever he was hungry.” Indra said her three other children miss Kugan too but that the one hardest hit is her husband. “As a father, he always thought that Kugan would be around to provide for the family if anything were to happen to him. He loved Kugan more than anything in this world. Now, he worries
about who will take care of the family if he dies.”
The one million ringgit question: Why would anyone starve, brand and beat up the corpse of a close relative?