PUTRAJAYA: Enforcement Agencies Integrity Commission (EAIC), which has come under severe criticism from the public for its silence on custodial deaths, today said it had set up a special task force to investigate these incidents.

EAIC chief executive Nor Afizah Hanum Mokhtar said the special task force would investigate the case of N Dharmendran and R Jamesh Ramesh who died in police custody on May 21 and May 26.

This, she added, was despite no official complaints having been lodged with the EAIC.

“To date,we have not received a single complaint in regards to deaths in police custody.

“This is our own initiative to help seek justice. We have a wide jurisdiction, so we will do all we can to provide what’s most beneficial to the people – justice,” she said adding that the task force was set up under section 4 of the EAIC Act.

Nor Afizah said that the task force will consist of five to eight members and will be spearheaded by the chairperson of EAIC, Heliliah Mohd Yusof.

She also said that the members are trained investigators and are knowledgeable in the Malaysian legal system.

“There will be five to eight members in this task force and they are highly trained investigators, they will have their first meeting on May 11,” she said.

“Most if not all of the members are EAIC officer. However, we cannot elaborate further on the details of the members until the first meeting,” she added.

Nor Afizah denied that their task force will overlap with any other similar outfits investigating death in custody.

“The Attorney General’s chambers decision to set up their own task force will not affect us in any way.

“We work in tandem to compliment the system that we have. There will be no overlap and we are also willing to work with anyone for that matter to ensure justice is served,” she added.

No deadline

Nor Afizah also said that they did not have a deadline and planned to move on the investigations as soon as possible.

The priority she said is to “complete it as soon as possible”.

“If we can do it in two weeks, then we will do it in two weeks.

“We are only interested in justice, we will work as fast as possible to provide justice. Justice hurried is justice buried, justice delayed is justice denied,” she said.

The EAIC, which was set up in April 2011, investigates complaints of misconduct by the members of the uniform corp.

Among these agencies are the Immigration Department, the Customs Department, the Rela Corps, the National Anti-Drug Agency, the Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency, the Department of Environment, the Department of Occupational Safety and Health, the National Registration Department (NRD), the Department of Civil Aviation, the Road Transport Department (RTD), the Department of Industrial Relations, the Department of Fisheries, the Department of Wildlife and National Parks, the Manpower Department, the Health Ministry (Enforcement), the Tourism Ministry (Enforcement and Licensing units), the Domestic Trade, Co-operatives and Consumerism Ministry (Enforcement) and the Ministry of Urban Wellbeing, Housing and Local Government (Enforcement).