PUCHONG: Eight days after his death while in police custody, Kugan Ananthan was finally laid to rest yesterday. Hundreds braved the afternoon heat during his funeral procession and later a downpour just before he was buried.
Kugan’s remains were brought to the Hindu cemetery in Puchong, some 20km from the University Malaya Medical Centre (UMMC) in Petaling Jaya where a second autopsy had been conducted on the body.
His family, accompanied by Puchong MP Gobind Singh Deo, Kapar MP S Manikavasagam and Penang Deputy Chief Minister (II) P Ramasamy, came to claim his body at the UMMC yesterday afternoon.
Seputeh MP Teresa Kok and Subang Jaya MP R Sivarasa also came to pay their last respects to Kugan at the cemetery and offer their condolences to his family.
Manikavasagam said the Selangor government had undertaken to pay for the funeral expenses. The heavy presence of police personnel and Federal Reserve Unit (FRU) members did not deter the hundreds of people who had gathered in the vicinity of the hospital since mid-morning. There was some commotion when police allowed only the MPs and Kugan’s parents and two close relatives to walk towards the UMMC mortuary where his body was kept. However, the situation became tense after a UMMC security personnel said he had “directives” to stop the group from entering the mortuary, prompting a heated exchange between him and Gobind. The Puchong MP pushed his way into the mortuary and police officers intervened and allowed Kugan’s family to enter but prevented media members from making their way into the building. In the meantime, police and FRU personnel stopped others who wanted to enter the UMMC compound, and at one point the FRU team asked people outside the mortuary, including journalists, to disperse. Although emotions ran high, there was no untoward incident except the arrests of five individuals, one of whom was later said to be wanted for murder. The other four wore t-shirts of the outlawed Hindu Rights Action Force (Hindraf) and one of them was its former coordinator RS Thanendran. The death of Kugan, 22, has sparked a massive outpouring of emotion against the Royal Malaysian Police, and chants of “Police pembunuh”, “Makkal sakthi” and “Hidup Hindraf” reverberated as the hearse carrying Kugan’s body made its way out of UMMC shortly after 2pm. Under heavy police escort and with a helicopter hovering above, the hearse made its way to the USJ 8 police station where Kugan had died for a short prayer ceremony outside the station before proceeding to the cemetery in Puchong. As at UMMC, the USJ 8 police station was heavily guarded by police and FRU personnel as onlookers stood and watched while the cortege inched its way amidst heavy traffic to the burial site, with hundreds following on foot and in vehicles. At the cemetery, an estimated 1,000 people had gathered and repeated shouts against the police, while his grieving family performed final rites during the heavy rain. Kugan was finally buried at 5.20pm. He was arrested on Jan 14 on suspicion of being involved in a luxury car theft syndicate and died on Jan 20 while in custody. Police claimed that he had collapsed after drinking some water and an initial autopsy said he died of “fluid in the lungs”. The Attorney-General’s Chambers subsequently classified the case as murder after the family took pictures of his body at the Serdang hospital morgue, which showed beating marks. Details of a second post-mortem are not out yet, and Gobind told reporters yesterday that Kugan’s family had instructed the MPs and the family’s lawyer N Surendran not to make any statements about the matter. Later, Gobind and Ramasamy called for Home Minister Datuk Seri Syed Hamid Albar's resignation from his post. "Why has no one answered how the injuries (on Kugan's body) happened? The handling of the case has been atrocious. The minister should resign. All they are trying to do is divert from the issue, which is the death of a person in police custody," Gobind told reporters at Kugan's funeral yesterday. "We are not trying to make this a racial issue. It is a Malaysian issue and this (death in police custody) can happen to anyone," he said. Syed Hamid had earlier said that the people should not regard criminals as heroes and the police who enforce the law as demons.