UM backs Kugan autopsy report, his mum sues police

(The Malaysian Insider) – 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.