A. GANAPATHY was a 40-year-old man who passed away due to injuries allegedly received while in police custody.
While the post-mortem report suggests that Ganapathy died due to the injuries he received on his arms, legs and shoulders; the Gombak police chief is adamant that the injuries he received did not occur while in police custody.
This is contradictory to the fact that the pathologist who examined the body claimed that these injuries were sustained while Ganapathy was in police custody.
Due to the obvious infraction of human rights suffered by Ganapathy during his incarceration, hundreds of people took to various social networking sites to cry outrage at the police for their obvious disregard for the rights of those in their care.
To this effect, the Gombak police chief Arifai Tarawei has warned the public against making videos and posts surrounding the death and demanding justice for Ganapathy. Tarawei has even gone so far as to add that those who persist to post about the death of Ganapathy “will be prosecuted by law”.
This however is an empty threat used by the police chief to seemingly stop the flow of outrage from Malaysian citizens.
Under Article 10 of the federal constitution, Malaysian citizens are allowed to exercise their right to freedom of speech without restriction from the government. Thus this, display of force used by the Gombak police chief holds no basis as no governmental body should be allowed to infringe upon their citizens’ rights.
I strongly believe that as Malaysian citizens we should speak up against infringements of human rights that are occurring right in front of our eyes, and we should not be baselessly prosecuted for it.
On the other hand, a certain degree of distance must be given to the police to properly conduct a meaningful and effective investigation. A constant stream of baseless videos and posts claiming the police had a hand in the death of Ganapathy will ultimately be counter-intuitive as the police will not be able to properly conduct their investigation.
The long and short of it is that action should only be taken when more information comes to light, as it is not right to solely speculate that the police were the main perpetrators in this incident. – The Vibes, May 5, 2021
Thej Eashen Previndran is a final-year law student at the University of Essex
