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Thursday 19 November 2009

Death in police custody – R. Sundara Raju, detained at Klang police station (18 November 2002)

Seven years ago today, 32-year-old R. Sundara Raju died of injuries sustained while he was being held in police custody at the Klang police station lock-up.

He had been arrested on 11 November 2002, and was admitted to the Tengku Ampuan Rahimah Hospital in Klang a few days later, after he had reportedly been beaten up in the lock-up. He died in the hospital after being in a coma for three days. It does not appear that the cause of his injuries has been made known.

Despite the requirement that all custodial deaths be investigated by inquiries conducted pursuant to Chapter XXXII of the Criminal Procedure Code, it is not clear that an inquest has been conducted into R. Sundara Raju’s death.

Every death in custody must be thoroughly and impartially investigated. R. Sundara Raju’s death must not be relegated to a mere statistic.

Based on the Royal Malaysia Police’s statistics, 85 persons died in police custody between 2003 and 2007 alone.

We express our heartfelt condolences to R. Sundara Raju’s family and friends on this anniversary of his death.

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