Gunasegaran inquest: Appeal against open verdict

R Gunasegaran's sister has filed an appeal to revise the open verdict in the recently-concluded inquest into his death while in police custody.R Ganga Gowri, 34  said the verdict does not explain why her brother died at the Sentul police station."And all I want is simply for someone to tell me how and why my brother died," she told reporters when met at the Kuala Lumpur court complex today.
Her lawyer M Visvanathan said there is still a glaring discrepancy in the Sudden Death Report (SDR)."Although the coroner made the decision saying that there is an SDR, it is a fact to this day that the police have not lodged an official report about it.“It is amazing that the coroner also ruled that the injuries sustained on Gunasegaran's body could possibly be from resuscitation efforts when the medical officer had clearly testified that there were no resuscitation efforts,” he said.

Later, when asked if she was still upset about the death, Ganga Gowri said that she is now more upset with the magistrate.“I don't know why the (coroner) doesn't want to let us know why he died,” she said.
In the Oct 25 ruling, coroner Siti Shakirah Mohtarudin gave an open verdict in the inquest into the death of R Gunasegaran, ruling that the cause of his death while in police custody could not be conclusively proven.

“This is an open verdict case as witness testimonies were not enough for a conclusion,” she had said.An open verdict means that the evidence brought before the court could not enable it to determine the cause of death. The court therefore only records the death.

Wild goose chase in the court

Although Visvanathan managed to file the appeal, he only did so by a whisker, filing the application at 3.45pm, just a quarter of an hour before the counters in the courts close.Trouble started when several commissioners of oaths had refused to attest to their documents, especially when it was stated on the notice of motion that the deputy public prosecutor is the respondent.The lawyer then, together with Ganga Gowri, had walked all over the court complex to get a court translator before the counter closes, leaving reporters to wait for close to two hours.

Source : http://www.malaysiakini.com/news/147242