Police detainee R Gunasegaran, who was found dead the same day as Teoh Beng Hock last July, was allegedly kicked on the chest while in police custody.

According to a report in The Sun today, witness S Selvach, who was detained along with Gunasegaran, identified the assailant as Lance Corporal Mohd Faizal.

Mohd Faizal was identified from a row of five police personnel brought into the court room. Selvach also identified all five as officers from the anti-narcotics branch at the Sentul police station.

Questioned by Gunasegaran’s family lawyer M Visvanathan, Selvach said Mohd Faizal had kicked Gunasegaran on the chest after the latter failed to produce a urine sample.

Following this, Selvach saw Gunasegaran on the floor of the lock-up room and was uncertain if he was still alive.

“It was bad,” replied Selvach when asked about Gunasegaran’s condition after being kicked.

Questioned by DPP Shashitah Mohamad Hanifa, Selvach denied the suggestion that he could not have seen Gunasegaran, who was lying on the floor in the lock-up area, since he himself was outside.

He also disagreed with another suggestion that he had concocted the story after obtaining additional information from Gunasegaran’s family and friends.

anwar ibrahim hearing zakaria pagan 240908 Earlier, the coroner heard from Sentul district police chief ACP Zakaria Pagan (right) , who agreed with Visvanathan that no report was lodged on Gunasegaran’s death despite this being a legal procedure.

The inquest before Coroner Siti Shakirah Mohtarudin will continue on Aug 10 with submissions from lawyers.

The police had previously claimed that Gunasegaran died due to drug abuse but his sister Ganga Gowri said she suspected foul play after speaking to several others who were detained at the same police station.

It was established during the early days of the inquest that Gunasegaran had collapsed in the police lock-up and was later pronounced dead.

Gunasegaran’s death was overshadowed by the death of Teoh, a political aide to a Selangor exco member, who was found dead on July 16 last year outside Plaza Masalam in Shah Alam, where the Selangor office of the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission is located.

Memorial activities

In a related development, the Saya Anak Bangsa Malaysia (SABM) movement will commemorate the death of both Teoh and Gunasegaran with a flower laying ceremony along the banks of the Klang River.

NONE According to the SABM website, the ceremony is also to remember all those who have died in police custody.

“In a ministerial reply in Parliament last year, the number of deaths in custody from 2003 until July 16, 2009 was 1,805. This translates into 23 deaths in a month or three deaths every four days,” reads an article on the website.

“Behind these deaths are questions. Questions that have remained silent to the point where that silence has become deafening. Questions that should have been asked and that are still not asked by each and every one of us for reasons unknown.

“How did this happen? What happened to due process that legitimacy is now given to the questionable actions of an institution? Who are responsible? Where were we?”

SABM urged the public to not only remember notable custodial death victims such as that of Teoh, Gunasegaran and A Kugan but also all other victims, and to press for the authorities to be accountable.

The organisation will gather next to the Bar Council headquarters in Leboh Pasar Besar, Kuala Lumpur, at 7pm on Friday.

Another function to commemorate Teoh’s death will be held at the Kuala Lumpur-Selangor Chinese Assembly Hall at 8pm the same day.