S Balamurugan was found with 20 injuries and his cause of death was determined by the pathologist as “coronary artery disease with multiple blunt force injuries”.
Balamurugan’s family had filed a suit against the police and the government for negligence, assault and battery, false imprisonment and breach of statutory duty in his death on Feb 8, 2017 while he was in custody at the Klang Utara police headquarters.
On Aug 30, 2022, the Kuala Lumpur High Court found the police and the government liable for Balamurugan’s death and ordered that the damages be assessed separately.
In a statement, Lawyers for Liberty (LFL) said Justice Su Tiang Joo granted the award during today’s hearing for the assessment of damages.
LFL said the court awarded RM100,000 in general damages, RM200,000 in aggravated damages, RM16,000 in special damages and RM22,000 in costs.
Balamurugan’s family was represented by LFL’s Zaid Malek and Nabila Khairuddin. The police and the government were represented by senior federal counsel Nur Ezdiani Roleb and federal counsel Afiq Nazrin Zaharinan.
In June 2017, FMT reported that messages in a Klang Utara police headquarters WhatsApp chat group showed that police officers had not only made fun of Balamurugan but had also used degrading words a few hours before he died.
The messages, which were revealed during a hearing conducted by the Enforcement Agency Integrity Commission, were exchanged after Balamurugan’s remand was rejected as he was unwell.
Some of the messages of the officers, read during the hearing, were “What should we do with this k****g, he looks like he is going to die”, “give him ketum”, “give him betel leaves to chew”, “use Cap Kapak on his eyes”, and “give him Carlsberg, he will be alright”.
About two hours before these messages were exchanged, Balamurugan was in a Klang court where his remand was rejected.
During the remand hearing, the magistrate told the Klang Utara police headquarters assistant investigation officer, who was with Balamurugan, to take him to hospital as he looked unwell.
Instead, Balamurugan was driven to the district police headquarters where he was placed again in a lockup.
He died less than 12 hours after his remand was rejected.