Sugumar’s family rejects inquest, calls for murder investigation

ARCHIVES 2013

By admin-s On Jan 28, 2013

An inquest under section 328 of the Criminal Procedure Code is only necessary where there is serious doubt as to the cause of death. An inquest is not a substitute for a proper criminal investigation. Why call for an inquest when there is adequate evidence to bring a criminal prosecution for murder?

N Surendran, Latheefa Koya

We refer to the statement by Selangor police deputy chief Datuk Thaiveegan on 27 January 2013 that an inquest will be held into the death of C.Sugumar in police custody. The family of C.Sugumar absolutely rejects an inquest into Sugumar’s death. Instead, the family again calls for the arrest, investigation and prosecution of all police personnel involved on murder charges under section 302 of the Penal Code. An inquest under section 328 of the Criminal Procedure Code is only necessary where there is serious doubt as to the cause of death. An inquest is not a substitute for a proper criminal investigation. Why call for an inquest when there is adequate evidence to bring a criminal prosecution for murder? In this case there are eyewitnesses who have come forward to say that Sugumar was chased down, handcuffed, smeared with turmeric and beaten to death by police personnel. This should have resulted in an immediate classification of the case under s.302 Penal Code; the calling of a mere inquest is inconsistent with the available evidence.

For too long now, the police and A-G’s Chambers have been abusing the inquest process to cover-up physical abuse and murders by the enforcement agencies. This can be clearly seen in the futile Teoh Beng Hock inquest process. The announcement of an inquest is merely being done to assuage public outrage, and not to get to the truth of the matter. An inquest in cases like this is nothing more than a ploy to cover-up the case by producing biased and incomplete evidence before the coroner. Unlike in some other Commonwealth countries, the coroner in Malaysia is not empowered to conduct his own investigations and must rely on the tainted and biased police investigation.

We note that despite repeated requests by Sugumar’s family, the police have refused to consent to the carrying out of a second post-mortem upon Sugumar’s remains. This again proves that the police have no interest in uncovering the real truth in Sugumar’s case. We call upon the Home Minister and IGP to act fairly and professionally, and to immediately launch a murder investigation into Sugumar’s death. The family and eyewitnesses are prepared to cooperate fully with the authorities in a murder investigation. Meanwhile, the ‘Justice for Sugumar’ protest demanding a second post-mortem and a murder investigation, on Tuesday 29/1/12 at Bukit Aman at 10.30am will proceed as scheduled.