Today, the inquest heard testimony from the third and last police witness, Ahmad Lotfi Abd Rahman, who is the Batu 14 police station chief and the first police officer to confront Sugumar during the Jan 23, 2013 incident.
The
inquest before Shah Alam coroner Rozi Bainon was assisted by deputy
public prosecutor Noor Husnita Mohd Radzi while lawyers Eric Paulsen (right) and Michelle Yesudas are holding a watching brief for Sugumar’s family.Ahmad Lotfi told the court that he initially did not notice the powder, although he had been trailing 30 metres behind Sugumar and had been observing him before deciding to move in to make the arrest.
This led to the coroner and the deputy public prosecutor to question how could he not notice, and sought clarification whether he meant that he could not see Sugumar’s face.
Ahmad Lotfi: “I was not paying attention, because I wasn’t wearing my glasses.”
Rozi: “Are you near-sighted or far-sighted?”
Ahmad Lotfi: “Both.”
Ahmad Lotfi explained that he was only focusing on Sugumar’s behaviour, and believed him to be “very aggressive” because he was brandishing a metal rod and raving in Tamil.
He added that he first saw the yellow powder at 6.50pm, when he left the scene and returned from fetching a police Land Rover from the Batu 14 police station, located about five minutes’ drive away.
'Sugumar's body too large for police cars'
The Land Rover was meant to carry Sugumar “comfortably” to the hospital for psychiatric evaluation, Ahmad Lotfi said, because he believed Sugumar’s body was too large for the police cars already at the scene.
While he was at the police station, he said, he received a call from another police personnel, Khalid Nordin, that Sugumar was motionless and that his condition was critical.
When he returned to the scene, Ahmad Lotfi said, he was informed that there was no ambulance available to respond to the emergency, but he issued no follow-up order.
“I didn’t give further orders to Khalid because the responsibility of liaising with the ambulance was already been handed to Khalid,” he said.
He added that he was also preoccupied with making calls to brief other police officers on what had happened and other issues, and was still hoping that an ambulance would show up.
In the end, it was a hospital attendant who arrived at 9.10pm, who inspected Sugumar and informed Ahmad Lotfi that Sugumar was already dead.
His remains were loaded into the police Land Rover by the forensics team and then sent to Serdang Hospital for post-mortem at about 11pm.
During cross examination this morning, Khalid, who had also testified yesterday, was grilled on why Sugumar was not sent to a hospital despite lying motionless on the ground.
Paulsen: “Since the ambulance was not coming, why didn’t the police send the suspect straight to the hospital?”
Khalid: “I have to have orders. If I receive orders, then I would send him.”
Paulsen: “Did you ask superiors what to do next after knowing that the ambulance was not coming?”
Khalid: “No.”
Teens pinned him down
Meanwhile, to a question why he ordered Sugumar to be handcuffed twice, Ahmad Lotfi explained that this was not normal practice, but is used to deal with large and aggressive suspects.
If Sugumar had not fallen to the ground, he said, it would have been difficult to apprehend him because of his size.
He said Sugumar had ran into a group of about eight to ten teenagers who were watching the commotion when attempting to flee, and fell after pushing and shoving with the group.
By the time he reached Sugumar, Ahmad Lotfi said Sugumar was already pinned to the ground by the group and was held down by his limbs.
As for the metal rod Sugumar was brandishing, it was nowhere to be seen and Ahmad Lotfi was unsure when was it discarded.
Nevertheless, he said Sugumar struggled in an attempt to break free from him and the youths until the second handcuff was applied, after which he looked exhausted.
The struggle was to such an extent that Sugumar’s pants was somehow pulled off, he said.
The hearing will resume tomorrow with Ahmad Lotfi’s cross-examination, and is scheduled to be the last day of the inquest.
Several members of the public had also been issued subpoenas to testify at the inquest.
However, Paulsen informed the court the three witnesses have yet to respond whether they would be attending court.
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