Federal
police have been urged to set up an independent team to
investigate an alleged brutality case against a detainee at the
Banting police headquarters last Friday.
Describing the incident as serious, Parti
Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) vice youth chief S. Manikavasagam made the
call through a memorandum to the Inspector-General of Police,
Tan Sri Mohd Bakri Omar, on Monday.
The memorandum was in response to Banting police chief
Superintendent Shah Gzali Khan Shahadad’s denial of the
alleged incident.
Manikavasagam also called for Shah Gzali to be suspended for
trying to cover up the matter without proper investigation.
“We also urge the IGP to immediately suspend the officers and
personnel who were present in the room where the abuse took
place,” he told The Malay Mail after handing over the
memorandum on Monday.
The memorandum was handed to Bakri through an official at the
Federal police headquarters in Bukit Aman.
He was accompanied by counsel K. Surendren and other party
members.
Manikavasagam and Surendren, along with the latter’s
client, claimed they saw a detainee being tortured by policemen
at the Banting police headquarters last Friday.
They claimed that the man, in his 20s, was gagged with white
tape and his hands bound behind his back.
He also alleged that the abuse had taken place during
interrogation in a CID room.
The trio later lodged separate reports on the incident after
relating what they saw to Shah Gzali. Shah Gzali allegedly
denied the allegation.
Surendren was at the police headquarters to secure the release
of his 18-year-old client.
Shah Gzali, meanwhile, denied that he had dismissed the
complaints without conducting an investigation.
He said he advised the three complainants to lodge a police
report after they saw him over the allegations of brutality
against one of the detainees.
“After they lodged a report, I personally supervised the
investigations. I called up my senior officers and questioned
them and they denied the incident,” he said.
Shah Gzali said he then went to the holding cell and spoke to
the detainees and no one claimed they were tortured or abused.
He advised the complainant to give details such as the name of
the policemen involved or details of the detainee who was
allegedly tortured.
Shah Gzali said investigations are on-going and warned the
complainants that he would lodge a report against them if the
allegations turned out to be false.
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Wednesday / November 09, 2005
