Lawyers N Surendran and Zaid Malek accompanied S Joseph in making the report at the Petaling Jaya police headquarters today.

Surendran urged Inspector-General of Police Razarudin Husain to form a team at Bukit Aman to investigate Soosaimanicckam’s death, given the gravity of the matter.

“This was the death of a navy cadet in a training camp. This involves the navy. This involves security. This is a very, very serious matter,” he told reporters after the report was lodged.

On Monday, the Ipoh High Court set aside the open verdict issued in 2018 by the coroner’s court inquiring into Soosaimanicckam’s death and replaced it with a finding of homicide.

Judge Abdul Wahab Mohamed ruled that the 27-year-old’s death was a direct consequence of the navy officers in charge of cadet training denying him medical treatment.

Wahab said that the navy officers denied the deceased’s request to seek medical treatment for leptospirosis, a disease caused by bacteria that affects people and animals.

Soosaimanicckam was pronounced dead at 1.45pm on May 19, 2018 at the Armed Forces Hospital in Lumut, Perak.

Based on previous reports, he had complained of chest pain and shortness of breath at the hostel after completing routine physical training at the camp.

Surendran also said that Joseph lodged the report due to a lack of response from the government and the navy following Monday’s ruling.

“I would have thought that immediately after the verdict, the police would have announced that they are setting up a team to investigate this,” he said.

“Because this is not some person in the street who said that there was a homicide. This is a sitting High Court judge.”

Meanwhile, Joseph expressed his desire for justice for his son and for those responsible for the negligence that led to his son’s death to be held accountable.

“I regret sending my son to the navy. They were careless and negligent and because of that, my son is dead.”