Cop cleared of hurting Kugan

Navindran was the sole officer charged over the death. — file pic

PETALING JAYA, Jan 28 — The Sessions Court here found police constable V. Navindran today not guilty of causing grievous hurt to A. Kugan when the latter was detained by the police two years ago.

In making his decision, Judge Aslam Zainuddin said the prosecution had failed to establish a prima facie case against the police constable.

Navindran, 28, was charged under Section 331 of the Penal Code which provides for a maximum jail term of 10 years and a fine, upon conviction.

He was accused for voluntarily causing grievous hurt to extract a confession from the 23-year-old Kugan, who died at the USJ police station lock-up on January 20, 2009.

He had also pleaded not guilty to two alternative charges of causing hurt to Kugan under Section 330 of the Penal Code. Kugan had then been detained on suspicion of having been involved in car thefts.

Outside the courtroom, Navidran told reporters that he will resume his work as a constable at Taipan police station in USJ, Subang Jaya.

“I am very happy and I would like to thank my lawyer and the court,” he said.

DPP Abazafree Mohd Abbas later confirmed that the prosecution was awaiting orders from the Attorney-General on whether to appeal against the decision.

Kugan’s death sparked a nationwide uproar and reinforced the public’s general lack of faith in the police force.

Many critics have pointed out that Kugan’s death was one of the many custodial deaths in Malaysia, mostly involving Indians detained by police, which further alienated the community.

Kugan died after being held for five days in police detention to aid investigations over the theft of luxury cars.

The death was initially classified as sudden death and attributed to water in his lungs according, to an initial post-mortem report.

However, the case was reclassified as murder following public outcry.

A second post-mortem was conducted at the insistence of his family, and pictures from it released online indicated Kugan had suffered severe injuries on his body. This supported widespread belief that he was tortured while in police custody.

The reluctance on the part of the police to allow a second post-mortem and the significant differences in the two reports, including descriptions of the extent of injuries and the actual cause of death, has also raised accusations of an attempted cover-up.

Following Kugan’s death, 11 rank and file policemen were transferred to desk duty at the Selangor police headquarters.