There was a sudden twist at the coroner's inquest into the death of actress K Sujatha today with a doctor who first treated her suggested that she could have committed suicide.

Dr SP Sakthiveloo's testimony ran contrary to the evidence given by Sujatha's employer S Vell Paari, who is son of MIC chief S Samy Vellu, that she had taken poison unknowingly.

Vell Paari had testified on Monday stating that Sujatha herself had told him that she had taken the poison by mistake .

dr sakthiveloo sujatha inquest 180309 However, Sakhtiveloo ( right in photo ) begged to differ today. He said it was not possible for Sujatha to drink the poisonous weed killer paraquat ‘unknowingly'.

The doctor, a cousin of Vell Paari, was the fifth witness at the inquiry being conducted before coroner Mohd Fauzi Che Abu.

He was the first person to treat Sujatha at the Klang Hospital after she had consumed the poison on June 19, 2007.

He also said that Sujatha had informed him at the hospital that she had taken "two to three gulps" of the weed killer and had consumed from the poison bottle directly.

"(Check up also) shows that (she had consumed) 50 ml of paraquat. The pungent smell of it (would also make any person know it is poisonous)," he said.

Sakthiveloo is a key witness to the inquest as he was the person Vell Paari had called on June 19 to seek advice after finding out that Sujatha had consumed poison.

He had then suggested that Sujatha be taken to the Klang Hospital, some 45km away from her house at the Sangsuria condominiums on Jalan Ipoh, Kuala Lumpur, as most private hospitals would not admit self-poisoning patients due to legal issues.

Klang hospital or GH, no difference

Sakthiveloo also explained on why he had suggested that Sujatha be taken to the Klang instead of a much nearer Kuala Lumpur General Hospital (KLGH) which was just some 10 minutes drive from Jalan Ipoh.

"At that time, it was around 6 or 7pm. Considering the traffic conditions of the city, it would not be possible to arrive there in 10 minutes. We would have probably arrived there in 20 (minutes).

"Even if we do arrive there by then, for paraquat poisoning cases, it would usually be categorised as a yellow zone (semi-critical) case and categorisation can only take place at a triage counter," he said.

k sujatha mysterious death quick fact 170309 Triage counters are where medical officers would conduct a patient history check up before categorising a patient, said Sakthiveloo, adding that this would take at least 20 to 25 minutes.

Given that he was a doctor at the Klang Hospital, Sakthiveloo said he could have "bypassed the procedures and get her straight into treatment".

"It took us 45 minutes to get to the Klang Hospital so if you compare the time difference, it is only about 10 to 15 minutes," he said.

He added the comparative time gap would not have made any difference considering the "rapid pace of multi-organ deterioration (caused by paraquat poisoning)" Sujatha was suffering from.

Several dubious procedural issues

Today's inquest also saw deputy public prosecutor Anslem Charles Fernandis focusing on several dubious issues surrounding the death of Sujatha.

It was learnt that no post-mortem was conducted on Sujatha despite a police request and that there was also no police report lodged on the matter when it was a standard procedure for the hospital to do so in poisoning cases.

The post-mortem, Fernandis argued, could have been a conclusive evidence that Sujatha had indeed died of paraquat poisoning.

It was also learnt that no blood toxicology test was done and that the urine sample of Sujatha contained no paraquat properties.

Sakthiveloo however explained that as a doctor, it was not his duty to lodge the police report but was the duty of hospital clerks or the ward nurses to do so.

On the police request for a post-mortem, Sakthiveloo said he only learnt that the police had made the request a month after Sujatha had passed away.

He also took time to explain that it was not necessary to conduct a post-mortem since the cause of death can already be determined by medical expertise and in his opinion, it was already clear that Sujatha had died of paraquat poisoning.

"The local and systemic effects like renal and lung deterioration, the clinical progression of Sujatha was typical off a paraquat-poisoning case," he said, adding that he was not alone in providing such medical diagnosis.

Five other experts confirm paraquat poisoning

Five other specialists from the same hospital conducted check-ups on Sujatha also concurred that the symptoms shown by the deceased was that of paraquat poisoning, he said.

On the urine part, Sakthiveloo said it was normal for paraquat poisoning patients to produce a paraquat-negative urine sample due to various reasons, such as when the urine sample was taken 24 hours after the patient was admitted.

He also said although it was not normal for government hospitals not to take blood or urine samples of their patients, it is done occasionally.

Coroner Mohd Fauzi adjourned the inquest to April 21 and 22. Other doctors involved in examining Sujatha are expected to be called in to testify.

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