Sunday January 25, 2009

Second post-mortem on youth today

By M. KUMAR and PRISCILLA DIELENBERG

PETALING JAYA: A second post-mortem will be conducted on A. Kugan at 9am today at the University Malaya Medical Centre.

N. Surendran, the lawyer representing the family of the suspected car thief who died in police custody, said the police had no objections to a second post-mortem if the hospital agreed to do it.

“We are very hopeful that the second post-mortem will shed some light into Kugan’s death,” said Surendran.

Kugan, 22, who had been remanded for two weeks in connection with investigations into several luxury car theft cases, collapsed and died at the Taipan police station in USJ, Subang Jaya, on Tuesday.

Waiting for consent: Kugan’s family members waiting at the police station at Subang Jaya yesterday with those who had come to give moral support.

The first post-mortem was conducted at Serdang Hospital at 8am on Wednesday. It found that Kugan had died due to fluid in his lungs.

Unhappy with the results, Kugan’s family sent his remains to the UMMC as they wanted an independent pathologist to carry out a second post-mortem.

At 3.30pm yesterday, Puchong MP Gobind Singh Deo, Kapar MP S. Manikavasagam, Kugan’s family and Surendran went to meet Subang Jaya OCPD Asst Comm Zainal Rashid Abu Bakar on the possibility of having a second post-mortem. Some 30 supporters stood waiting outside the Subang Jaya police headquarters.

In George Town, DAP chairman Karpal Singh called for the pathologist who conducted the first post-mortem to be investigated now that Attorney-General Tan Sri Abdul Gani Patail has classified Kugan’s death as murder.

He said he welcomed Abdul Gani’s statement on Friday as there were bruises on the body.

“The bruises must have been there when the initial post-mortem was carried out.

“How is it that this post-mortem indicated that Kugan died of pulmonary oedema or fluid accumulation in the lungs?

“This amounts to a cover-up,” he said in a press statement.

He said the truth would not have come to light if Kugan’s family had not entered the Serdang Hospital mortuary and taken photographs of the bruises.

Karpal Singh called on Abdul Gani to direct an immediate investigation into the pathologist for allegedly issuing a false post-mortem report.