A.KUGAN's Funeral

The family of the 22-year-old youth who died in police custody has decided to postpone his burial in order to seek a second post-mortem.
The decision comes in the wake of Selangor police chief Khalid Abu Bakar saying today that the post-mortem done at the Serdang Hospital found that Kugan Ananthan had died due to 'liquid in his lungs'.

This evening, Kugan's body was brought to the Hindu cemetery in Batu 14, Jalan Puchong.

However, after consulting lawyers, the family decided not to proceed with the burial and conduct an independent post-mortem.

The body has been taken to the University Malaya Medical Centre to determine if any foul play was involved in the case.

Kugan, who hails from Puchong, was arrested on Jan 15 in connection with several luxury car theft cases. He collapsed and died on Tuesday at the Taipan police station in Subang Jaya.
Decision made at cemetery

The dramatic turn of events took place just as Kugan's parents - G Anathan and S Indra (photo left) - arrived along with the hearse at the cemetery where he was to be buried.

Several lawyers who had gathered at the cemetery then informed Kugan's parents of Khalid's statement and said it was up to them to decide if a second post-mortem was needed.

Anathan and Indra immediately gave consent for a second post- mortem and the funeral was called off. Their decision won applause from some 300 people who had gathered at the cemetery.

"The parents were unaware the post-mortem report stated that the cause of death was due to 'water in the lungs' and not assault. If not, they would have asked for a second post-mortem report earlier," said lawyer N Surendran.

"They are rather suspicious of foul play in the death of their son and are not confident with police investigations especially after Khalid's statement (on the cause of death)," he added.

Earlier, funeral rites were performed for the deceased at his family home in Kinrara Puchong. Kugan's family members were sobbing inconsolably throughout the funeral which was attended by about 200 people.