Kugan's mother finally submits petition to King

A Kugan's mother N Indra finally succeeded, in her third attempt, to submit a petition to the Yang diPertuan Agong, seeking his intervention to ensure justice for her son who died while in police custody.The earlier two attempts times, in September last year and March this year, failed. The lawyer representing Kugan's family, N Surendran, and MP Kapar S Manickavasagam accompanied Indra to the palace gate.

They were received by a palace official who accepted the petition on behalf of the Senior Private Secretary to the King. At last we managed to submit the petition. This time they had no excuse to chase us away," Surendran said outside the palace, after the petition had been submitted.He said the need to petition the King arose as all other institutions had failed them."The police, the court and even the Prime Minister's Department had failed us. This was our last resort," he told reporters.

He pointed that it was believed Kugan's death was perpetrated by at least 10 police personnel, but only one, constable V Navindran,was charged, but with a lesser offence - that of causing grievous hurt."Why only one person was charged when there were others involved as well?" Surendran asked.In the petition, Kugan's family pleaded to the King to demand that:

The federal government or any related agencies take action to ensure that justice was served for Kugan and that the guilty are punished;

The federal government takes action against Selangor chief police officer Khalid Abu Bakar;

The federal government takes action to ensure that people held in police custody are safe; and

The federal government sets up an Independent Police Complaints and Misconduct Commission (IPCMC).

Indra  who could not hold back tears, said she still had trouble sleeping at night, and continued to mourn her son's death.

"Why did they murder my son and say that he had died (of natural causes)? I want all those guilty to be punished for his death," she said.Surendran added that they hope the King would respond within one week as it was a serious matter.Kugan died on Jan 20 last year at the USJ Taipan police station, five days after he was arrested. Initially, police said he died after drinking some water and the post-mortem conducted at the Serdang Hospital concluded that Kugan died from liquid in his lungs.

Following this, Dr Prachant Samberkar conducted a second post mortem, which proved that Kugan was beaten to death.This triggered a massive public outcry, and attorney-general Abdul Gani Patail reclassified the case as murder before initiating investigations. A day after the A-G's announcement, 11 constables and lance corporals from the Subang Taipan police station were moved out and put on desk duty pending investigations.

Source : http://www.malaysiakini.com/news/139970