HULU LANGAT, 15 Oct: The Selangor State Government handed an assistance of RM10,000 to the family of C.Sugumaran who died while in police custody.
The contribution was personally presented by the Selangor Executive Councillor in charge of Welfare, Rodziah Ismail, to the mother of the deceased, Manaigalai Kuppamuthu, recently at the victim’s family home in Taman Sri Nanding.
Rodziah was accompanied by the Assemblymen for Dusun Tua, Razaly Hassan.
“I urge for the Home Affairs Minister to be careful and to be humane when he talks about issues concerning safety and the lives of people. Does the minister even think of the lives in his hands to a point of him issuing a statement when such things happen – we shoot first? Is shooting the best way to solve it?” she asked.
“In my opinion, defending the people is when equality is given, regardless of who he is, or if the party is in the wrong. Bring it to court so that it can be proved accordingly,” she said.
Rodziah said that the Sungai Tua constituency Office proposes to settle the registration of the victim’s mother under the Skim Mesra Usia Emas (SMUE) senior citizen scheme.
Meanwhile, the cousin of Sugumaran, K.Anantha Kannan who was met hopes that those responsible for the death of his cousin will be brought to justice and prosecuted under Section 302.
According to him, to this date, the case has not been filed in the civil court and the family has rejected inquests by the police.
“The police has obtained all of the old document stating that he (Sugumar) is a psychiatric patient to humiliate the late C.Sugumar. We feel humiliated because the police is in the wrong,” said Anantha sadly.
“The police had already handcuffed him, and then spread curry powder on his face. He fell and the people from a nearby coffee shop came to beat him up. The police just watched. So far, only one witness has been questioned in the Kajang Magistrate Court,” he said.
He added that several witnesses will be called to testify in the case hearing after the Eid al-Adha celebration.
Sugumar, a security guard, was arrested in January this year after allegedly suffering from mental problems and damaging public property.
The autopsy report stated that he died of a heart attack; however witnesses claimed that during the arrest, a policeman stepped on his neck when he was handcuffed.
The incident photograph also showed the turmeric powder spread on his face.
Witnesses claimed that about 20 people from a nearby restaurant helped the police to arrest him and together beat up C.Sugumar.