The Malaysian Insight

A FORMER car workshop manager has alleged he was abused by seven officers in Serdang District Police Headquarters on June 9.

In a press conference today, Joseph Prakash, 43, alleged the officers had kneed him in the neck to a point where he had difficulty breathing.

Serdang police chief Anbalagan Arumugam confirmed the report but declined further comment.

Joseph’s wife Sumathi Tamil Vanan, 38, lodged a police report.

Sumathi initially went to police headquarters to lodge a report against Joseph for domestic abuse and he then went to the station to make a counter report.

He was told to go to the second floor where they made him sit at a corner.

After several hours when Joseph did not return home, Sumathi said she went to the police station and she was told he was on the second floor.

She said she tried talking to him, but the officers told him to keep quiet and when he did not that is when they started hitting him.

According to her report, Joseph was punched in the face and kicked in his chest.

Joseph said that on June 10, while in transit to court, he was threatened by the officers not to reveal to the magistrate he had been beaten.

However, he told the court he was beaten in custody. The court then ordered him to undergo a medical examination.

Joseph’s lawyer, Ganesh Kanagaretnam said the medical report corroborated Joseph’s side of the story.

“The officers involved in this incident should be charged immediately,” he said.

Earlier this month, lorry driver Umar Faruq Abdullah died at South Klang district police headquarters yesterday in the third case of custodial death reported in two weeks.

The police said Umar jumped off the second floor of the building where he had been on remand over the theft of a gas cylinder.

An early report said Umar, who was handcuffed with his hands behind his back, was moved from the third to the first floor of the building when he jumped out of the second floor window during a scuffle with a policeman from whom he was trying to escape. – June 15, 2021.