The police had said N Harirajan, 34, had "died of AIDS" last Thursday, just three months into a six-year jail sentence in Kajang prison for robbery.He was found dead in a gruesome state and his family said they were unaware that he had AIDS, even as a preliminary post-mortem diagnosed this.
Suaram said Harirajan was the sixth death in custody in the last three months.
"Harirajan faced similar injuries with bruises on chest, head, stitches above his right eye and bleeding from both ears. His eyes were still wide open while in the mortuary.
"Suaram demands an explanation over the condition of this young man in the hospital mortuary.
"How does he end up with blood stains on his body if the prison authorities claimed that he died of HIV?" Suaram coordinator R Thevarajan said in a statement.
He added that even though Harirajan died at 6am, his family was only informed in the afternoon.
Suaram said the IPCMC has been pending for nearly a decade and its delay showed that Malaysia lacked political will to control what might be police cruelty, with two custody deaths a month reported in February, March and April so far.
"Unfortunately the list is sure to grow longer by the end of the year. Interrogation methods and Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) in handling criminal suspects and prisoners must be urgently reviewed and reformed," Thevarajan said.
He noted that the Enforcement Agency and Integrity Commission (EAIC) had so far taken no action to arrest the serious and shocking problem.
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