This one of the most horrific case of custodial death depicted by gory video/pictures of cuts abrasions and foam in mouth!

Yet although 11 rank and file policemen were initially transferred to desk duty at the Selangor police HQ over this case only 1 – a suspected sacrificial lamb of a police constable Navindran Vivekanandan, 30,was charged for causing grievous hurt to assuage public ire! And even then prosecutor couldn’t hack to prove prima facie case and kena the case buang out of court!

So now that the case is thrown out how are we to make out what & who caused this death – that he being too thirsty drank too much water, threw some up, whilst the rest congested his lungs??? There are other unusual anomalies in this case, for eg:-

• 3 conflicting post mortem reports, the last as a result of a 10-man committee findings made without conducting an actual post-mortem on the body;

• With this kind of questionable forensics yet there’s no similar initiative from S’gor state govt to appoint external forensic expert Porntip as in TBH’s case! Why is this – because Kugan an allegedly suspected car thief and not a aide to an opposition politician like TBH???

• Suspected interference by authorities with the items and DNA specimens of Kugan;

• One day in court whilst Justice Muhamad Ideres Muhamad Rapee was away in Kedah, prosecution and the defence carried on with their arguments without a judge before a stunned court official -Senior assistant registrar Azlinda Ahmad Sharif- who had no power to hear the case (The Star Report Thursday July 2, 2009),

A Kugan’s case involving police like TBH’s involving MACC is an indictment of the whole system of administration of criminal justice in this country – wheere in th absence of a culpable culprit, Kugan was made to sound as if he had accidentally drowned himself whilst the other (TBH) accidentally self strangulated (since he had no record of suicidal tendency and being a prospective father had every reason to want to live).

Investigators are implicated in both cases : who guards the guard and which investigator could independently investigate another investigator of wrong doing in a milieu of esprit de corps??? Are we having law or anarchy here when wrong doing is suspected of those who wield power especially of law enforcement? Is some class – esp the class that enforces the law- above the law?

When public outcry breaks out, do victims’ families and those who want justice have to depend in each instance on a RCI commissioners to do police work on whodunit! What a joke !

For prevention why not have a standard protocol that just before any one whether suspect like Kugan or a witness like TBH goes in for interrogation, insist on a prior doctor’s check and certification of clean bill of health to withstand interrogation? Better still instead of incurring public cost of RCIs, why not spend it on installing CCTV in every interrogation session as a deterrent??? Those who criticised US of Abu Ghraib’s and Guantanamo Bay’s abuss are strangely quiet over our own.