On 28 Nov 2003, over nine years ago,
52-year old security guard G Veerasamy died in police custody at the
Pandan Indah police station.
According
to his son, V Suresh, his father had been healthy when he had last seen
him at the same police station on 24 Nov 2003, the day of his arrest.
V Suresh was informed that his father had died from stomach pains, but
when identifying his father’s body at Kuala Lumpur Hospital, he
reportedly saw injury marks on his father’s face.
An
inquest into G Veerasamy’s death started on 13 Jul 2004 at the Ampang
Magistrates Court. According to a news report, a doctor from Kuala
Lumpur Hospital testified that when G Veerasamy had been brought to her
for treatment on the day of his arrest, he had a fractured nasal bone,
laceration of the nose and bruises on his back. Based on those wounds,
the doctor believed he had been assaulted. No further details on the
progress or outcome of the inquest were available at the time of
writing.
Every
death in custody must be thoroughly and impartially investigated. G
Veerasamy’s death must not be relegated to a mere statistic.
Based
on the statistics disclosed by the Ministry of Home Affairs, 156
persons died in police custody between 2000 until February 2011.
We express our heartfelt condolences to G Veerasamy’s family and friends on the recent anniversary of his death.
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