Ganapathy, 40, was said to have spent 12 days in police custody from Feb 24 to March 8 before being admitted to hospital.
He succumbed to his injuries last week after spending over a month at the Selayang Hospital’s intensive care unit.
His mother claimed that he was beaten by police while in detention. He had been arrested to assist in investigations into his sibling’s alleged crimes.
In a joint statement endorsed by 18 youth organisations, the groups expressed their solidarity with Ganapathy’s family and slammed the lack of official statements on his death and others like it.
“We are further declaring our distress at the lack of any comments by the government or the police concerning this particular case and regarding institutionalised abuse in general despite mounting pressure from the rakyat.
“The government’s reluctance to tackle this issue in a holistic and effective manner has resulted only in the infringement of our civil rights, and as such is unacceptable conduct from a government that now wields expansive legislative power in this state of emergency.”
The statement was co-signed by youth groups such as Undi18, Youths.my and Sarawak Women for Women Society.
The groups said the “silence of many” had eroded public trust in the police and called for an independent body to be established to investigate matters of police misconduct as it is “counter-intuitive” for these breaches to be overseen by the police themselves.
They also supported previous calls for a public inquiry into Ganapathy’s death, as well as the establishment of an Independent Police Complaints and Misconduct Commission (IPCMC) to probe allegations against the police.
On Tuesday, MIC vice-president C Sivarraajh said the number of similar incidents highlighted the need for such a body to be formed.
“It is one way for the victim to get justice and to improve the image of the police.”
Right’s group Eliminating Deaths and Abuse in Custody Together (EDICT) last week called for the Attorney-General’s Chambers to hold an inquest into Ganapathy’s death under Section 339 of the Criminal Procedure Code.