Defence counsel says no indication from A-G’s Chambers that others would be charged

Indra : Still traumatised by her son’s death

CONSTABLE Navindran Vivekanandan claimed trial to causing grievous hurt to detainee A. Kugan when he was charged in the Petaling Jaya Sessions Court yesterday.

Navindran, 28, pleaded not guilty to two principal charges of causing grievous hurt to Kugan to extort a confession from him or any information which may lead to the detection of an offence or misconduct, at the interrogation room of the D9 office of the Taipan police station, USJ Subang Jaya, at 7am and 4pm on Jan 16.

He also pleaded not guilty to two alternative charges of causing hurt to Kugan at the same place and time.

The main charges carry a maximum 10-year jail term and the alternative charges seven years’ jail upon conviction.

Both also carry the liability of a fine. Deputy public prosecutor Idham Abd Ghani asked the court to set bail at RM10,000 with one surety for all the charges, saying that these were serious charges and the case had received wide media coverage.

Surendran : Delay should not be blamed on the family

Defence counsel Datuk Salehuddin Saidin, however, said media coverage was not a factor for consideration and asked that bail be set at RM1,000 as Navindran had cooperated with the police and also had a wife and children to look after.

Judge Aslam Zainuddin allowed bail of RM10,000 with one surety and fixed Nov 5 for mention.

Salehudin told reporters that so far there was no indication from the Attorney- General’s Chambers that others would be charged in connection with the case.

Meanwhile, Kugan’s mother is disappointed that the police constable is not being charged with the murder of her son. N. Indra, who spoke to Malay Mail yesterday, was in tears, saying that this was an injustice.

“The whole of Malaysia knows that there was more than one person involved in beating up my son and yet it takes so long for them to identify the people and then only charge one of them for causing hurt when it’s also known that my son died because of their doing,” she said.

Attorney-General Tan Sri Abdul Gani Patail, in a statement on Wednesday, said the policeman would be charged with voluntarily causing grievous hurt to extort a confession from Kugan.

The 23-year-old died on Jan 20 after five days in police custody at the USJ police station lock-up to assist
police in investigations into luxury car thefts.

Indra said as a mother she was still traumatised by her son’s death and all she wanted was justice.

“Everything is before our eyes. The policeman who was charged was even offered bail for such a crime and my son was not even given a chance. What is going on?”

Kugan’s family lawyer N. Surendran, when contacted, disagreed with Gani’s explanation in the media statement on why Navindran could not be charged with murder.

“The reason given by the A-G is that there is no evidence that Kugan suffered an instant death. Instead,
he died four days after the alleged beating. Therefore, there was a wide gap in-between and a charge of murder could not be preferred against the suspect. We refute that claim completely,” he said.

He also refuted the claim by the A-G that referred to the findings of the medical report where it did not show that the deceased died due to the injuries suffered by him, but was the result of acute myocarditis, a viral infection of the heart.

Surendran said the second post-mortem report, which showed the severity of the beatings that led to cellbreakdown, which in turn led to kidney failure, could have easily led to the arrest of the policemen involved.

Surendran added that the A-G’s claim for the delay in pressing charges was caused by the family was “absolutely untrue”.

“Being aware that the family was looking forward to sending the samples to Australia for further examination, why was there a need to order the police to seize the samples?” he asked.

Surendran said the delay should not be blamed on the family but on the A-G’s Chambers for seizing the samples for a toxicology report to be carried out to find out if any poison was administered.

He said the A-G’s Chambers was well aware that the samples were to be sent to Australia. - Malay Mail