Share |

Wednesday 3 February 2010

P Babu – latest victim of cops; Gathering at Bkt Aman Thurs on Norizan case

by Nathaniel Tan

ps- There will be a protest gathering Thursday, 4th February at Bkt Aman at 11am, over deaths in detention as well as the case of Norizan bt Salleh, who was shot 5 times and kicked repeatedly by the police, without having committed any crime or posing any threat. Another post on this later.

The unbelievable part is this: even though activists have literally screamed bloody murder over so many cases – Kugan, Gunasegaran, Francis Udayappan, and (again, literally) thousands of others – the police brazenly continue with their ways.

The latest victim is P Babu, a sawmill worker only a year or two younger than myself.

Sawmill worker P Babu, 28, was found dead in the Jempol police lock up at about 4am (February 1st. Babu, an orphan who was raised by his uncle, has been under remand since Jan 24 after he surrendered himself to the police over a robbery case.)

When contacted, Jempol MIC Youth chief M Palani said the first post-mortem report classified the death as suicide.

The deceased had apparently used his shirt to hang himself.

Palani said the family have rejected the findings because “Babu was a strong willed person and would not have this decision (to commit suicide)”.

“We are also questioning the fact that he hung himself using his shirt. Shouldn’t he be wearing a police issued t-shirt (for detainees)?” he asked.

Even if we give the police the benefit of the doubt, which is stretching plausibility to its maximum, they must accept full responsibility for the death of anyone under their custody.

I happened to watch Felon on HBO last night, which had some disturbing insight on how cruelty can fester and grow in people who are granted power of others. Instead of checking such tendencies in Malaysia, the government is being complicit to them by failing miserably to bring perpetrators to justice.

If the police won’t stop these horrific deaths, and if the government won’t make them stop, then I think it’s damn well time to change the government.

No comments: