Suspend the Policemen - Dhamendran's Widow

The wife of death in custody victim N Dhamendran is upset that the policemen linked to his death been given desk jobs with suggestions of them being suspended, when they should have been arrested from the beginning.

"They have murdered my husband. They should be in a lock up, not having a desk jobs. They do not deserve it. By right, they should be hung to death,” said S Marry.

"If the public were to kill someone, would they still be walking free? This is the police committing murder," said the teary mother of a two-year old son.
Yesterday Home Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi was tentative with calls for the policemen being probed for the 31-year-old’s death to be suspended from duty instead of being assigned desk jobs, saying it had to be handled delicately lest the police force be demoralised.

Dhamendran had allegedly gone to the police station to lodge a report over a fight, but had ended up being detained and died in custody, initially said to be from breathing difficulties.

However an autopsy at Kuala Lumpur Hospital on May 22 concluded the cause of death as blunt force trauma.

Police have since classified Dhamendran's death as murder under section 302 of the Penal Code.

Marry's call comes after lawyer N Surendran made public Dhamendran's autopsy report at the PKR headquarters this morning, which suggested that he was handcuffed and brutality beaten to death.

Surendran, also the Padang Serai MP, said the police were already aware of Dhamendran's brutal cause of death when they handed over the autopsy report to the family's lawyer at 11am yesterday.

"Based on this report, legally it is adequate evidence to bring murder charges against all the police personnel involved under section 302 of the Penal Code.

"But instead the four personnel are transferred to desk duty, this is a joke... We demand that all the police personnel involved be arrested immediately. I mean today - within the hour," he said
He said under Section 302 of the Penal Code, the accused cannot be granted bail and must be in detention until their trial concludes but yet the culprits were still "walking about freely".

Low adding to family grief

Surendran also described as a lie Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Paul Low's denial of seeking a secret meeting with the deceased's family through Dhamendran's father and claiming it was the family's representative who first sought the meeting.
Surendran confirmed that Dhamendran's father B Naraynasamy who spoke to Low's officer D Ravindran had asked them not to come to their home as emotions were running high, but denied the family engaged the Prime Minister's Department first.

"I am disgusted by Paul Low and his officers. Here is a family in sorrow and they decide to go about casting aspersions on a grieving family.

"Well done Paul Low, if this is the best you can do," he said sarcastically.
When pressed on Low's assertion that he merely wanted to help and his intention for a meeting had been misunderstood, an angry Marry retorted: "We did not misunderstand, it was the person on the phone who misunderstood. If they wanted to help we would've accepted".

"But why did they ask us to meet in secret and ditch our lawyers? That is not helping," she said angrily.

Surendran reiterated his call for an explanation from Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak himself as the call had came from his departmen which had a history of interfering in such cases such as blocking a Thai pathologist from conducting an autopsy in C Sugumar's death in custody case.
He also demanded that Home Minister Zahid Hamidi and inspector-general of police Khalid Abu Bakar explain why Dhamendran's body was stapled repeatedly and riddled with cane marks.

'Apologise to family'
"There has not been a single word of apology to the family, instead they (government) are attacking the family, accusing them of making phone calls (to the Prime Minister's Department).

Surendran also blasted the government for debates over the forming of a panel to oversee death in custody and suggestions to install CCTV when it had yet to address the immediate matter - arresting those responsible.

"These are all distractions from the real matter at hand," he said.

The family's lawyer Michelle Yesudas described the Dhamendran's death as an "execution".

"What we have here is an execution of a person even before he is brought to court.

"Every time the government fails to address death in custody, they are victimising every single victim who dies in custody (after that). We do not want this anymore," she said.


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