KUALA LUMPUR, July 27, 2015:

The public hearing into the death of detainee N. Dharmendran while in police custody kicked off this morning with the testimonies of three witnesses.

One of the witnesses was Dharmendran’s widow Marry Mariay Susay, 28 who could not contain herself when speaking about the last time she met her husband.

“We spoke a while and he asked about our son. We also discussed about meeting a lawyer. He assured me there’s no need and all will be handled by the police,” she replied when asked by the legal officers about her visit to her husband while he was in custody.

When asked about his parting words before he left the meeting room, Marry had trouble holding back her tears before replying that Dharmendran’s told her to take care of their 3-year-old son.

“He also assured me he would come home,” she said in tears.

However, Dharmendran died two days later.

The public hearing, carried out for the first time by the Enforcement Agency Integrity Commission (EAIC), aimed to investigate the cause of Dharmendran’s death while he was in the D9 Division lock-up of the Kuala Lumpur Police Contingent Headquarters.

Prior to the commencement of the hearing this morning, EAIC commissioner and chairman for the proceedings Vinayak Prabhakar Pradhan said the hearing would investigate whether there were any wrong doings by police officers that might have led to Dharmendran’s death.

The investigation would also look into determining how and why any wrongdoings took place, standard operating procedures (SOP) or mechanisms that led to any wrong doings and the individuals responsible for the wrong doings.

“It will also recommend any improvement or amendment to rules, methods,SOPs or mechanisms to ensure the wrong doing is not repeated.

“I wish to stress that this is to determine whether there are any shortcomings, this is not a criminal investigation,” he told lawyers, EAIC officers and media personnel present at the hearing that took place at Menara TH Perdana here.

The proceedings today were also co-chaired by Leong May Chan, with Tan Sri Muhd Jamil Johari and Tan Sri Dr Sharifah Hapsah Syed Hasan being the consultants throughout the proceedings.

Vinayak also explained that the proceeding’s commissioner would not be the same person for all the days.

Malaysian Bar Council member Roger Chan expressed concerns about this, saying they preferred the same commissioner present throughout.

The Malaysian Bar Council would be holding a watching brief of the proceedings led by Chan.

Vinayak assured this was normal procedure, explaining that a transcript and video of the proceedings would be given to all involved.

The public hearing would be conducted in two sessions with the first being from July 27 till 31, whereby nine witnesses would be called.

Today’s proceedings also called in first witness Mohd Khairil Anuar Mansor, a photographer attached to the Dang Wangi police station, who took 131 photographs of Dharmendran’s post mortem.

He was questioned on the procedures involved in taking photographs and who instructed him on the photographs to be taken.

The third witness was Dharmendran’s father V. Narayanasamy.

The second session of the public hearing was expected to be held from Aug 17 to 21.

Dharmendran, 31, was detained on May 11, 2013, for the attempted murder of two people in Cheras.

While in custody, he reportedly complained of chest pains and collapsed at around 4.30pm on May 21, 2013.

He was sent to Kuala Lumpur Hospital and was pronounced dead on arrival.

The post-mortem revealed he died from various injuries, however Kuala Lumpur Criminal Investigation Department chief Senior Asst Comm Datuk Ku Chin Wah said Dharmendran died due to breathing difficulties.

Four police officers were charged and acquitted over his death.

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