Lockup death: Gnanapragasam’s wife wants inquest

(The Star) – The wife of A. Gnanapragasam, who was found dead in a police lock-up earlier this month, wants an inquest into the death.

M. Manimalai, 40, said Gnanapragasam, a 53-year-old wireman who was arrested on June 10 for allegedly breaking into a house in Sg Buloh, had never complained of illness to her or felt ill when he was alive.

“A few days after he was detained by the police, he was dead; and his handphone and the money he had with with him are missing.

“Who is going to take care of me and my children now?” said the mother of seven at the Parliament lobby here Thursday.

She was speaking to the press after handing over a memorandum to Deputy Home Minister Jelaing Mersat, accompanied by Bukit Lanjan assemblywoman Elizabeth Wong and Subang Member of Parliament R. Sivarasa.

Manimalai claimed that when she last visited her husband at the Damansara Damai police station, there was a bruise on his right eye.

“He also told me that the police had beaten him up. When I asked him, he told me that he had complained to the magistrate about the beating but no action was taken,” she claimed, adding that Gnanapragasam had only been arrested once previously by the police for fighting about 10 years ago.

A post-mortem by Universiti Malaya Medical Centre (UMMC) pathologist Dr Prashant Samberkar later found that Gnanapragasam died of “toxaemia secondary to spontaneous peritonitis which means poison in the blood from bacterial infection in the intestines.”

Sivarasa said although Manimalai would not dispute the findings of the post-mortem, she wanted to know why her husband had not been given care while in prison, which was tantamount to criminal negligence.

He said under the Criminal Procedure Code, an inquest should be held immediately after a detainee’s death.

“However, in Malaysia, the inquest is usually held months or even years after the death. Authorities should seal off a police station and treat it as a crime scene.

“We want an inquest to be held immediately,” he said, adding that the probe into Gnanapragasam’s death should be carried out by an independent body and not the police.