Hospital: Mob tampered with Kugan's body
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.
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.
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
UM Backs Kugan Autopsy Report, Mum sues Police
ReplyDeletehttp://www.themalaysianinsider.com/index.php/malaysia/27880-um-backs-kugan-autopsy-report-his-mum-sues-police
KUALA LUMPUR, May 28 — Universiti Malaya has backed the pathologist’s report on dead police detainee A. Kugan in a recent letter to the Health Ministry while his mother today filed a suit against the police for seizing specimens related to his second autopsy.
Sources told The Malaysian Insider today that the Universiti Malaya vice-chancellor’s office wrote to Health Ministry director-general Tan Sri Ismal Merican last month, backing pathologist Dr Prashant N Sambekar’s autopsy report on Kugan who died on January 20 at the Taipan police station.
“The Universiti Malaya disputed Tan Sri Ismail’s report that came out on April 6 which dismissed the pathologist’s report. After all, this involves the university’s reputation,” the source said.
Dr Prashant’s report showed Kugan had died from a condition known as rhabdomyolysis, which is the rapid break-down of skeletal muscle tissue which will lead to kidney failure but the committee concluded he died due to water in the lungs or acute pulmonary edema, inflammation of heart muscles or acute myocarditis which was compounded by blunt force.
The first post mortem carried out at the Serdang Hospital by Dr Karim Tajuddin on January 21 stated Kugan’s cause of death as “acute pulmonary edema” or fluid in the lungs.
The source said the university did not make public the letter as it involved government agencies.
Universiti Malaya, the country’s oldest university with a reputable medical programme, is under the aegis of the Higher Education Ministry. The first autopsy was at the Serdang Hospital which is run by the Health Ministry.
Meanwhile, Kugan’s mother N.Indra filed the suit at the Kuala Lumpur High Court this morning, seeking the return of the specimens that were seized by police on April 6 after Dr Ismail made public the committee’s findings.
Family lawyer N.Surendran had last month said the family wants the specimens of organ parts, photographs and other materials returned as it has to be sent for further tests in Australia.
Police had said the documents obtained from the hospital would be used as evidence in police investigations into Kugan’s death which occurred five days after he was arrested on suspicion of car theft.
They took all files, pictures and samples from the second autopsy done on January 25 after flashing a search warrant.
Federal Criminal Investigation Director Datuk Seri Bakri Zinin told The Malaysian Insider police were instructed to make the seizures by the Attorney-General and the move was part of ongoing investigations into the case. Eleven policemen have been given desk duties in connection with the case.
In an eight-page report released to the press, Dr Ismail said the 10-men committee unanimously agreed there was no evidence to show that the deceased had been ‘branded’ or been given repeated application of heat with an instrument or object as reported in the second post mortem.
In their opinion the injuries were the result of repeated trauma by a blunt and flexible object, like a rubber hose.
The committee found that all injuries on Kugan were insufficient to directly cause death and the discrepancies in the two reports were due to the absence of communication between the two pathologists, the misinterpretation of post-mortem changes and some of the injuries by the second pathologist.
They concluded the discrepancy was not because of any foul reporting, misleading of information and there was no intention to hide information.
Dr Ismail said the differences in the number of external injuries found on Kugan, was because of different methodology used by the doctors. Dr Karim had tabulated 22 external injuries because he had grouped them by regions while Dr Prashant had listed some individually and some in groups, on the body.