The hearing over the case of A Kugan, who died in police custody, will see the plantiff calling five witnesses while the defendants calling nine.
KUALA LUMPUR: The mother of A Kugan, the suspected car thief who died in police custody three years ago, will take the stand on Nov 2 at the Kuala Lumpur High Court in her RM100 million civil suit against the Deputy Inspector-General of Police and four others.
N Indra had filed the suit on Jan 13 this year against Khalid Abu Bakar, police officer V Navindran, former Subang Jaya police chief Zainal Rashid, the then-inspector-general of police (IGP) as well as the government for negligence and breach of statutory duty.
In the statement of claim, Indra had said Kugan was arrested by the police on Jan 14, 2009. On Jan 20, at about 9pm, a police officer informed her that her son had died while he was in police custody.
Indra had claimed on Jan 21, Khalid had issued a false explanation to the media on the cause of death, alleging that Kugan had asked for a glass of water and then collapsed and died.
She had claimed that the defendants made attempts to cover-up the real cause of death and issued statements calculated to exonerate the police from blame or liability.
In a separate trial in June this year, Navindran had been found guilty on two counts of causing hurt to Kugan. Shah Alam Sessions Court judge Aslam Zainuddin sentenced him to three years’ jail on each count, to be served concurrently.
Today, the Kuala Lumpur High Court was told that before his death, Kugan had taken care of his mother and provided her with a portion of his salary every month.
Thus, as the plaintiff, Indra would also be making a liability dependency claim.
Pathologist left the country
Lawyers for the defendants later told reporters that they were willing to pay the amount as long as it was a “reasonable sum.”
“They said that Kugan earned RM3,000 a month and paid his mother RM1,00 every month,” said Azizan Md Arshad.
“We are now trying to solve the issue of income as they have not provided us with his pay slip,” he told reporters.
“But if it’s a reasonable sum, then we will pay,” he added.
Lawyer RL Bani Prakash, who is representing Indra, had also told Justice VT Singham in court that they would call a total of five witnesses, including former lead counsel N Surendran who is now a key witness.
R Sivarasa, who was not in court today, would replace Surendran as lead counsel for the plaintiff.
Bani also revealed that they were not able to subpoena University Malaya Medical Centre (UMMC) pathologist Dr N Prashant, as he was not in the country.
Dr Prashant had conducted the second autopsy on Kugan which revealed that his death had been caused by “acute renal failure…due to blunt trauma to skeletal muscles.”
This was after the first post-mortem had concluded the death was due to fluid accumulation in the lungs.
“We are still waiting for confirmation from the hospital on whether Dr Prashant is returning to the country,” Bani told the court today.
“We went to serve the subpoena , but was informed by the front desk that he was no longer there.”
Instead, Bani said, they will subpoena Dr Nazarina Abdul Rahman, the head of UMMC’s forensic pathology department.
Defendants have nine witnesses
Singham rebuked Bani for not informing the court earlier that Dr Prashant was not in the country, pointing out that arrangements could have been made to compensate for his absence.
“I am only interested in justice. The doctor is a material witness and we could have made arrangements to record his statement earlier,” said Singham.
“He is a foreigner, so you should have checked for how long he would be remaining in the country. For the sake of justice to prevail in the courts, you could have applied to record his evidence earlier.”
Meanwhile, the lawyers for the defendants informed the court that they would be calling in nine witnesses.
Kugan, from Puchong, had been arrested to facilitate investigations into a luxury car theft syndicate. He died six days later.
The case was then reclassified as murder following the results of the second autopsy, and 11 rank-and-file policemen were transferred to desk duty at the Selangor police headquarters over this case.
However, only Navindran was charged with Kugan’s death.
KUALA LUMPUR: The mother of A Kugan, the suspected car thief who died in police custody three years ago, will take the stand on Nov 2 at the Kuala Lumpur High Court in her RM100 million civil suit against the Deputy Inspector-General of Police and four others.N Indra had filed the suit on Jan 13 this year against Khalid Abu Bakar, police officer V Navindran, former Subang Jaya police chief Zainal Rashid, the then-inspector-general of police (IGP) as well as the government for negligence and breach of statutory duty.
In the statement of claim, Indra had said Kugan was arrested by the police on Jan 14, 2009. On Jan 20, at about 9pm, a police officer informed her that her son had died while he was in police custody.
Indra had claimed on Jan 21, Khalid had issued a false explanation to the media on the cause of death, alleging that Kugan had asked for a glass of water and then collapsed and died.
She had claimed that the defendants made attempts to cover-up the real cause of death and issued statements calculated to exonerate the police from blame or liability.
In a separate trial in June this year, Navindran had been found guilty on two counts of causing hurt to Kugan. Shah Alam Sessions Court judge Aslam Zainuddin sentenced him to three years’ jail on each count, to be served concurrently.
Today, the Kuala Lumpur High Court was told that before his death, Kugan had taken care of his mother and provided her with a portion of his salary every month.
Thus, as the plaintiff, Indra would also be making a liability dependency claim.
Pathologist left the country
Lawyers for the defendants later told reporters that they were willing to pay the amount as long as it was a “reasonable sum.”
“They said that Kugan earned RM3,000 a month and paid his mother RM1,00 every month,” said Azizan Md Arshad.
“We are now trying to solve the issue of income as they have not provided us with his pay slip,” he told reporters.
“But if it’s a reasonable sum, then we will pay,” he added.
Lawyer RL Bani Prakash, who is representing Indra, had also told Justice VT Singham in court that they would call a total of five witnesses, including former lead counsel N Surendran who is now a key witness.
R Sivarasa, who was not in court today, would replace Surendran as lead counsel for the plaintiff.
Bani also revealed that they were not able to subpoena University Malaya Medical Centre (UMMC) pathologist Dr N Prashant, as he was not in the country.
Dr Prashant had conducted the second autopsy on Kugan which revealed that his death had been caused by “acute renal failure…due to blunt trauma to skeletal muscles.”
This was after the first post-mortem had concluded the death was due to fluid accumulation in the lungs.
“We are still waiting for confirmation from the hospital on whether Dr Prashant is returning to the country,” Bani told the court today.
“We went to serve the subpoena , but was informed by the front desk that he was no longer there.”
Instead, Bani said, they will subpoena Dr Nazarina Abdul Rahman, the head of UMMC’s forensic pathology department.
Defendants have nine witnesses
Singham rebuked Bani for not informing the court earlier that Dr Prashant was not in the country, pointing out that arrangements could have been made to compensate for his absence.
“I am only interested in justice. The doctor is a material witness and we could have made arrangements to record his statement earlier,” said Singham.
“He is a foreigner, so you should have checked for how long he would be remaining in the country. For the sake of justice to prevail in the courts, you could have applied to record his evidence earlier.”
Meanwhile, the lawyers for the defendants informed the court that they would be calling in nine witnesses.
Kugan, from Puchong, had been arrested to facilitate investigations into a luxury car theft syndicate. He died six days later.
The case was then reclassified as murder following the results of the second autopsy, and 11 rank-and-file policemen were transferred to desk duty at the Selangor police headquarters over this case.
However, only Navindran was charged with Kugan’s death.
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