A witness in the R Gunasegaran death in custody case was whisked away by the police from his house in Kuala Lumpur last night.K Selvachandran's wife S Saraswathy (left in photo), said she was told to give him a goodbye kiss by police officers - four male and one female - who came to her house at about 10pm before taking him away.She alleged that one of the policemen grabbed the house key when Selvachandran was trying to unlock the door, punched him and opened the door themselves.
She was speaking in Tamil at a press conference today with Suaram coordinator E Nalini and M Visvanathan, the lawyer for Gunasegaran's family, translating into English.She said she was then told by the officers to help her husband to put on his pants instead of the sarung he was wearing."I was asked by the officers to give a kiss to my husband, before they beat him up, in front of me and my children."She added that the police hit her husband once again before Selvachandran, 30, was taken into a van.
Authority cards flashed
Social activist C Sekar, who also attended the press conference, added that Saraswathy told him the officers came without identifying themselves, and merely flashed their authority cards before taking Selvachandran away. The way they behaved was like gangsters," he said, condemning the officers' behavior.Saraswathy has filed a police report over the matter.Saraswathy said that she received a phone call from her husband at
around 9am this morning, telling her that his detention would be extended two more years after the initial 60-day detention period.
Sekar added that somebody, believed to be a deputy public prosecutor, passed the phone to Selvachandran when contacting Saraswathy.He surmised that Salvachandran had been taken to court to arrange for his detention.
Coroner could not say injuries caused death
Yesterday, coroner Siti Shakirah Mohtarudin said that the court could not conclude that the injuries found on Gunasegaran were the cause of death as the pathologist could only say that this was a possibility.A second post mortem could not determine the cause of death as the body had decomposed after over a month at the Kuala Lumpur Hospital morgue.Selvachandran, who was at the Sentul police station on July 16, 2009, on the day Gunasegaran was arrested, testified that he saw Lance Corporal Mohd Faizal Mat Taib kick the deceased in the chest.
The second post-mortem recorded a wound measuring 28cm x 8cm x 5cm on the deceased's chest, which the pathologist noted could be from assault or resuscitation efforts.However, witnesses testified that there was no resuscitation efforts carried out on Gunasegaran besides splashing water on his face, when he collapsed while his fingerprints were being taken.
Source : http://www.malaysiakini.com/news/146488
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