Time to walk your talk, people. Selvach needs us now. Will you be there for him?

There were 4 deaths in custody in 2009 where the details of the deceased and the fact of the death in custody became publicly known.

Kugan, who died in the Taipan police station in January.

Gnanapragasam, who died in the Sri Damansara police station in June.

Teoh Beng Hock.

And Gunasegaran.

Gunasegaran’s stood out from the others in one very important detail.

Four individuals detained together with Gunasegaran witnessed events leading up to Guna’s death.

Unlike the other three cases, in Guna’s case, there were eye witness accounts that, it would turn out, materially contradicted the official account proffered by the police auhorities.

As efforts were made in late July and early August last year to put together a team to try and get at the truth surrounding Guna’s death, it became obvious early on that these eye witnesses would need to be ‘protected’, lest they be ‘got to’, to change their ‘story’.

That task fell on the shoulders of one person who chooses to remain unknown. I shall call him X.

Sure, enough, on the night of the very day that Visva successfully got an order of the High Court in August last year, based on the sworn testimony of 3 of those 4 eyewitnesses, for a second post mortem and an inquest into Guna’s death, Selvach, one of the three, got word that the police wanted him in for questioning in relation to a police report said to have been lodged against him in relation to a family quarrel.

Selvach alerted X of this and the next day, a solicitor was arranged to accompany Selvach to the Wangsa Maju police station to offer his statement in relation to that alleged report.

Nothing came of this.

We assured Selvach that if at any time he was harassed or intimidated by the police, he should contact X and every effort would be made to give him protection.

Now, since that episode, Selvach never called X to ask for any help in relation to any intimidation, arrest or harassment by the police.

You will also note that in Visva’s submissions that I referred to in my ‘New brooms…’ post, Visva had said, of Selvach :

Saksi ini memberi keterangan bahawa pada 16.7.2009 beliau juga ditahan bersama simati dan 4 yang lain. Saksi ini telah dilepaskan pihak polis kerana ujian urin beliau negative pada petang hari tersebut.

Selvach was released on the same day of the arrest, 16th July, 2009, because his urine sample tested negative for any drugs.

Now if he had gotten into any trouble with the law, or if he had had another run-in with the police, I’m certain he would have been in touch with X for help.

There was no such call to X prior to Selvach’s arrest last Monday night, after the coroner had delivered her verdict earlier in the day.

To the best of our knowledge, then, Selvach had no further ‘problem’ with the law.

So why was Selvach beaten and arrested that night, and why is he being held?

Selvach could have refused to have anything to do with the inquest proceedings, to spare himself any trouble with the police.

He did not.

He stepped forward and told the truth.

Is that why he is being held now?

Because he dared to speak up?

HI

30/10/10