Discrepancies in accounts of Sivabalan’s death: Santiago

KUALA LUMPUR – There seems to be a discrepancy between the police and family account on the death of security guard Sivabalan Subramaniam.

After visiting the family to extend his condolences, Klang MP Charles Santiago reiterated that Sivabalan’s sister received a call from the police at 3pm saying her brother was seriously ill in Selayang Hospital.

On the day of Sivabalan’s death, his sister had said a policeman told her that Sivabalan died at 12.25pm.

Santiago also highlighted the discrepancy noted in Sivabalan’s death certificate.

“There is another issue: the place of death according to the death certificate is Selayang Hospital. But Sivabalan died at the police station. The report against Sivabalan was also made in 2014 and the police acted after seven years.

“The discrepancies and the police saying that the deceased died of a heart attack less than an hour after he was arrested warrant an investigation and inquest. There is a court ruling that an inquest must be held for every death in police custody.

“We can’t trust the police to investigate themselves. The inquest hearing must be made public because this is a case of public interest and the findings must be made public as well.”

In a short statement yesterday, Selangor police chief Datuk Arjunaidi Mohamed said the post-mortem results showed that Sivabalan died of acute myocardial infarction – in other words, a heart attack.

He added that Sivabalan’s case has been classified as a “sudden death report”, and the full findings will be submitted to the deputy public prosecutor with a recommendation to hold an inquest.

Yesterday, Santiago called for the Malaysian Human Rights Commission (Suhakam) and Enforcement Agency Integrity Commission (EAIC) to initiate a public inquiry into Sivabalan’s death.

“So, here’s the thing. We have had another death in custody at the Gombak district police headquarters.

“For those who may have forgotten, this is the same place where A. Ganapathy died. Yes, the same police station that is currently embroiled in controversy over his death.”

Sivabalan died less than an hour after being taken in at the Gombak district police headquarters (IPD) on Thursday afternoon.

A Facebook video posted on the account of former Tamil radio station DJ Sri Shankar Ganesh, better known as “Funky” Shankar, revealed that the sister of victim Sivabalan Subramaniam claims she was informed by police that her brother was in critical condition at Selayang Hospital about 3pm.
 
She said a policeman then informed her mother that Sivabalan had died due to breathing difficulties and was asked to make her way to the hospital’s Forensic Department.
 
“Till now, we are still unaware of what happened to him except that the policeman had also told me that Sivabalan died at 12.25pm,” she said in the video.
 
Also in the video, the victim’s mother said her son was called to the police station over investigations into a 2016 extortion case.

Sivabalan’s death comes less than a month after the same police station was embroiled in controversy over the death of cow milk trader A. Ganapathy while in police custody.

Ganapathy died in hospital on April 18, more than a month after being taken there from the police station on March 8. – The Vibes, May 22, 2021