KUALA LUMPUR, 28 May 2009: The mother of A Kugan, who died while in police custody four months ago, today filed a notice of motion to compel the police to return documents, tissue samples and bodily fluids of her son which were seized from Universiti Malaya Medical Centre (UMMC).
N Indra, 41, a hotel housekeeper, is also seeking the court to revoke a search warrant for the office of the UMMC head of pathology department on 6 April.
In the notice, which was filed through the legal firm of Messrs Edwin Lim Suren & Soh at the High Court registry, Indra named Senior Crime Investigating Officer at the Petaling Jaya district police ASP Mohd Marzukhi Mohd Mokhtar, district police chief ACP Arjunaidi Mohamed, Bukit Aman Crime Investigation Department director Datuk Seri Mohd Bakri Mohd Zinin and the Inspector-General of Police as respondents.
Kugan, 22, died while in police custody on 20 Jan.
In her supporting affidavit, Indra said she was not satisfied with the first post-mortem conducted by the forensic expert at Serdang Hospital, Dr Abdul Karim Tajudin, who stated that Kugan’s death was due to acute pulmonary oedema as she believed that her son was beaten by the police.
Following which, she said family members requested for a second post-mortem by UMMC forensics expert Dr Prashant N Samberker for which they paid RM2,000.
Indra said the second post-mortem, which was done on 25 Jan was incomplete and that several toxicology tests still had to be conducted, following which she was advised to send samples taken from her son’s body to a forensic laboratory in Australia for the purpose.
She said that before the samples could be sent to Australia, police searched Prashant’s office and took them away.
She claimed that the search at Prashant’s office was unlawful and that she had yet to receive a copy of the search warrant, despite having sent a request to the Bukit Aman Crime Investigation Department for a copy of the warrant.
Indra claimed that the police had no right to seize the documents and samples as she paid for the second post mortem, adding that as a result of the seizure, the report of the second post mortem could not be completed. — Bernama
