The Health Minister questioned claims by Inspector-General of Police (IGP) Khalid Abu Bakar that police had warned the people at the food outlet not to run just prior to the raid, but that the doctor had made a dash for it anyway when approached by plainclothes policemen in balaclavas.
“The doctor who was tackled and detained by plainclothes police on Oct 7 feared for his life when several masked individuals approached him.
“Out of fear, he did not cooperate when he was ordered to as the officers had no identifying markings or police insignia,” the Malay Mail quoted the minister as saying during a working visit to Hospital Serdang yesterday.
This contradicted Khalid’s account of what had transpired on that fateful Friday, at about 9.30pm, when Dr Thanendran Renganathan was taking a break from his duties in the cardiology department of the hospital.
“Before the police arrived, everyone was told not to run, and we were there because we were informed about the suspects.
“The suspects were there during the raid and the doctor (Thanendran) together with the public ran away when the special unit barged in to apprehend the suspects,” Khalid said in a press conference at the police training centre in Kuala Lumpur yesterday.
Thanendran was reported to have been kicked to the ground and handcuffed by members of the elite police unit and suffered light injuries.
Subramaniam said the doctor had been treated in an unnecessarily rough manner and more effort should have been made to verify his identity immediately since the victim was in his doctor’s scrubs, and had a hospital ID plus stethoscope in hand.
“The raid was conducted in the grounds of the hospital and the officers could have easily brought him in to the office to verify his identity,” the MIC president said.
Thanendran later said in a police report that the pleas of a senior doctor, who came to the scene of the arrest and vouched for him had also fallen on deaf ears, and police refused to release him.
Instead, the elite police team took the doctor to the nearby Sri Serdang police station for further interrogation.
Yesterday, Khalid said police will not apologise for assaulting the doctor whom they mistook for a robbery suspect.
“I regret what happened, but we will not apologise. We were just carrying out our duty,” Khalid said, adding that the public needed to cooperate in such situations and the doctor in question should have stayed put when warned.
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