KUALA LUMPUR: The family of suspected car thief A. Kugan filed an application to compel the police to return all items, documents, tissue samples and bodily fluids which were seized from Universiti Malaya Medical Centre on April 6 to its pathology department.
Kugan, 22, was detained by police on Jan 15 this year for alleged car theft but died five days later while in police custody.
His mother, N. Indra, 41, filed a notice of motion and a supporting affidavit through her lawyer N. Surendran at the High Court criminal registry at 10:55am Thursday.
Indra, a hotel housekeeper, said she just want to get back the samples and documents for forensic pathologist Dr Prashant N. Samberkar to complete her son’s second post-mortem.
She was accompanied by her husband, contractor R. Ananthan, 44, and relatives.
In the notice of motion, she had named senior investigating officer-cum-lead raiding officer ASP Mohd Marzukhi Mohd Mokhtar, Petaling Jaya district police chief ACP Arjunaidi Mohamed, Bukit Aman Criminal Investigations Department director Datuk Seri Mohd Bakri Mohd Zinin and the Inspector-General of Police as respondents.
In the notice, Indra is seeking the High Court to set aside and/ or cancel a search warrant issued by the Petaling Jaya Magistrates Court for the search and seizure at the pathologist’s office on April 6.
She is also asking the court to order the authorities to return all the items and documents seized during the search at the office that day to UMMC’s pathology department.
The mother of four is also seeking to get other reliefs deemed fit by the court.
In her supporting affidavit, Indra stated that Kugan had died on Jan 20 while in police custody. His body was later taken to the Serdang Hospital by the police.
She said the head of Serdang Hospital’s forensic unit, Dr Abdul Karim Tajuddin, had performed an autopsy on Kugan’s on Jan 21. His cause of death was stated as “acute pulmonary oedema.”
Indra said she was not satisfied by the findings over the cause of death written in the hospital’s post-mortem report, as she believed that her eldest son was beaten up and tortured by the police during the detention.
She claimed that Kugan’s body had assault marks.
Upon considering his pain, Indra said she and her family had decided to cancel his burial ceremony in Puchong and appointed forensic expert Dr Prashant to conduct a second post-mortem on his body on Jan 25.
Indra said Puchong Member of Parliament Gobind Singh Deo had undertaken to pay RM2,000 to UMMC for the costs to carry out the second post-mortem.
She said she had been advised by her lawyer that the second post-mortem report was incomplete (provisional) and that several toxicology tests had to be done.
She said she had been advised by her lawyer and Dr Prashant to sent several samples taken from Kugan’s body to a forensic lab in Australia for the tests.
Indra said UMMC was preparing to send the samples to Australia before the search and seizure was done.
She applied to the court to issue the order as quickly as possible, saying that the samples taken from Kugan’s body belong to her and that the respondents had no right to seize them.
After the filing Thursday, Surendran told reporters that UMMC had communicated with various authorites for the shipment of the samples.
“It is imperative to send the samples for testing,” he said.
Surendran said the police had raided Dr Prashant’s office without regard to medical ethics, professionalism and duties.
“This was a serious breach of medical privilge and confidentiality, especially when they know that the second post-mortem was not completed and that samples had to be sent to Australia,” he said.
The second pathologist gave the provisional cause of death (pending a toxicology report) as “acute renal failure due to rhabdomyolysis (the breakdown of muscle fibres resulting in the release of myoglobin into the bloodstream) due to blunt trauma to skeletal muscles.”
On April 6, an independent committee of medical specialists announced that Kugan died from acute congestion of the lungs due to an acute inflammation of the heart muscles, compounded by blunt force trauma.
Star Online
28/05/09
Kugan, 22, was detained by police on Jan 15 this year for alleged car theft but died five days later while in police custody.
His mother, N. Indra, 41, filed a notice of motion and a supporting affidavit through her lawyer N. Surendran at the High Court criminal registry at 10:55am Thursday.
Indra, a hotel housekeeper, said she just want to get back the samples and documents for forensic pathologist Dr Prashant N. Samberkar to complete her son’s second post-mortem.
She was accompanied by her husband, contractor R. Ananthan, 44, and relatives.
In the notice of motion, she had named senior investigating officer-cum-lead raiding officer ASP Mohd Marzukhi Mohd Mokhtar, Petaling Jaya district police chief ACP Arjunaidi Mohamed, Bukit Aman Criminal Investigations Department director Datuk Seri Mohd Bakri Mohd Zinin and the Inspector-General of Police as respondents.
In the notice, Indra is seeking the High Court to set aside and/ or cancel a search warrant issued by the Petaling Jaya Magistrates Court for the search and seizure at the pathologist’s office on April 6.
She is also asking the court to order the authorities to return all the items and documents seized during the search at the office that day to UMMC’s pathology department.
The mother of four is also seeking to get other reliefs deemed fit by the court.
In her supporting affidavit, Indra stated that Kugan had died on Jan 20 while in police custody. His body was later taken to the Serdang Hospital by the police.
She said the head of Serdang Hospital’s forensic unit, Dr Abdul Karim Tajuddin, had performed an autopsy on Kugan’s on Jan 21. His cause of death was stated as “acute pulmonary oedema.”
Indra said she was not satisfied by the findings over the cause of death written in the hospital’s post-mortem report, as she believed that her eldest son was beaten up and tortured by the police during the detention.
She claimed that Kugan’s body had assault marks.
Upon considering his pain, Indra said she and her family had decided to cancel his burial ceremony in Puchong and appointed forensic expert Dr Prashant to conduct a second post-mortem on his body on Jan 25.
Indra said Puchong Member of Parliament Gobind Singh Deo had undertaken to pay RM2,000 to UMMC for the costs to carry out the second post-mortem.
She said she had been advised by her lawyer that the second post-mortem report was incomplete (provisional) and that several toxicology tests had to be done.
She said she had been advised by her lawyer and Dr Prashant to sent several samples taken from Kugan’s body to a forensic lab in Australia for the tests.
Indra said UMMC was preparing to send the samples to Australia before the search and seizure was done.
She applied to the court to issue the order as quickly as possible, saying that the samples taken from Kugan’s body belong to her and that the respondents had no right to seize them.
After the filing Thursday, Surendran told reporters that UMMC had communicated with various authorites for the shipment of the samples.
“It is imperative to send the samples for testing,” he said.
Surendran said the police had raided Dr Prashant’s office without regard to medical ethics, professionalism and duties.
“This was a serious breach of medical privilge and confidentiality, especially when they know that the second post-mortem was not completed and that samples had to be sent to Australia,” he said.
The second pathologist gave the provisional cause of death (pending a toxicology report) as “acute renal failure due to rhabdomyolysis (the breakdown of muscle fibres resulting in the release of myoglobin into the bloodstream) due to blunt trauma to skeletal muscles.”
On April 6, an independent committee of medical specialists announced that Kugan died from acute congestion of the lungs due to an acute inflammation of the heart muscles, compounded by blunt force trauma.
Star Online
28/05/09
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