9 August 2014
Prime Minister Must Sack Inspector General of Police
The Prime Minister must immediately sack the
Inspector General of Police Tan Sri Khalid Abu Bakar from duty following the judgement
of the Court of Appeal in the death in custody of A. Kugan. The three judges of
the Court of Appeal yesterday unanimously upheld the judgment of high court on
the case and found that Tan Sri Khalid Abu Bakar and his police officers were
responsible for the death of A. Kugan.
An independent investigation must be
conducted on the conduct of the Tan Sri Khalid Abu Bakar and other police
officers involved in the case when Tan Sri Khalid Abu Bakar served as the
Selangor chief of police when A. Kugan was found dead in Taipan USJ, Subang
Jaya police station on 20 January 2009.
The IGP and his police officers involved in
the case must be brought to criminal justice if the independent investigation
is to find them criminally liable for the death of A. Kugan. This would be in
line with the judgment of the Court of Appeal that attributed liability at 55%
for the death of Kugan against the police, and 45% against Navindran, the sole
police officer that was charged and convicted so far.
Tan Sri Khalid Abu Bakar was reportedly said
that Kugan collapsed and died after drinking water and he has died of water in
the lungs. However, the post-mortem report of the body of A. Kugan revealed
that A. Kugan suffered 45 external injuries and wide range of internal injuries
and his actual cause of death was due to acute renal failure attributed to
blunt force trauma.
According to the judgment of the high court
presided by Datuk V. T. Singham, the current IGP was not only found to have
given misleading information to the public at that time, but also failed to
follow the instruction of the Attorney General to investigate the case as
murder rather than causing hurt, and did not direct a formal departmental
inquiry on the case. The high court judge also questioned the failure of the
then Selangor police chief in his duty to hold an inquest into the death of
Kugan and clarify his misleading public statement.
More damning, the high court judge concluded
that there were elements of a cover up on the real cause for the death of A. Kugan.
Clearly, Tan Sri Khalid Abu Bakar was no
longer fit to serve as the Inspector General of Police when high court judgment
was made in 2013. However, the prime minister has failed to take the necessary
action in removing the IGP at that time.
The prime minister should not fail a second
time in restoring public confidence in the police force. The prime minister
must show he is serious in supporting the call of the Court of Appeal for zero
tolerance of custodial deaths by
removing Tan Sri Khalid Abu Bakar and establish the long overdue Independent
Police Complaint and Misconduct Commission.
An anti-torture
law must be put in place to prevent police officers from taking the law into
their hands and beat up and torture detainees in their custody.
Released by,
Yap Swee Seng
Executive Director
