Post-mortem shows Ganapathy died of injuries while in custody, says lawyer
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A POST-MORTEM has confirmed that Ganapathy Anpalagan died of injuries believed to have been caused by beatings while he was in police custody, the lawyer of his family said today.
Ganesh Kanagaretnam told The Malaysian Insight this was disclosed yesterday by a doctor from the Kuala Lumpur Hospital Pathology Department.
“Present at the briefing were the investigating officer, Ganapathy’s sister and myself,” Ganesh said.
“Now that it is confirmed by the autopsy report that his death was due to the beatings, we will get to the bottom of this.”
The family will decide on their next course of action after a press conference later this afternoon by Gombak police chief Arifai Tarawe.
Forty-year-old Ganapathy died on April 18 in Selayang Hospital where police had sent him for medical treatment.
The father of two was arrested on February 24 to assist in investigations into his brother’s alleged crimes. He is reported to have spent 12 days in police custody from February 24 to March 8 before he was admitted to the hospital.
He died after a month in intensive care.
Ganesh said in the 12 days Ganapathy was in custody, he asked to be and was sent to Selayang Hospital four times for treatment.
Yesterday the lawyer told The Malaysian Insight Ganapathy’s family will sue the police and Selayang hospital over alleged negligence which resulted in his death.
https://www.themalaysianinsight.com/s/313081
Ganesh said he was waiting for the investigation to conclude before filing legal action.
Politicians and civil society groups have called for a transparent probe into the custodial death, saying there were far too many such cases.
The Home Ministry in a parliamentary reply on March 28, 2017 revealed there were 257 deaths in police custody between 2002 and 2016. – April 30, 2021.