Coroner Rasyihah Ghazali held that K Roopan died of pulmonary embolism which originated from a blood clot in his left leg.

However, she said the court had been unable to identify the cause of the blood clot.

Rasyihah ruled out any suggestion that Roopan’s death was caused or contributed to by the negligence of the prison’s officers or doctors.

Roopan, who was convicted of murder, died eight days before the hearing of his appeal, which was scheduled for June 29, 2021.

Rasyihah noted that Roopan, 25, collapsed in his cell on June 21, 2021, shortly after having breakfast with several other cellmates.

“A prison officer took the deceased to the prison’s clinic and he remained unresponsive despite a medical officer having performed CPR (cardiopulmonary resuscitation) on him for 30 minutes.

“Upon arriving at Hospital Kajang, another medical officer found that there were no vital signs on him,” Rasyihah said.

She noted that Roopan had sought treatment at Kajang Hospital for breathing difficulties a week before his death. He was discharged on June 20, 2021 and returned to prison.

“Although he was allowed to return to prison, a prison officer said the deceased complained to him twice about difficulties in breathing while walking back to the quarantine cell.

“He should have been brought to the prison’s clinic for a doctor to certify that he had completely recovered before being put in a quarantine cell,” Rasyihah said, noting that the cell was dirty and not conducive for a person recuperating from illness.

Despite this, Rasyihah held that the prison officers were not negligent as they were merely following orders in placing inmates returning to prison into Covid-19 quarantine.

“The prison officers and doctors did their duty in providing emergency assistance to Roopan on June 21, 2021.

“The medical officers (in Hospital Kajang) also administered the appropriate treatment to him previously. They said there was no need for the deceased to take a D-Dimer test as he was not at risk of contracting a blood clot,” Rasyihah said, adding that only a specialist doctor could order such a test on a patient.

The D-Dimer test is administered to check if a patient has a blood-clotting disorder.

The court also found that Roopan had responded positively to treatment for lung infection.

Doctors previously told the inquest they were not aware who ordered the D-Dimer test on Roopan. According to the evidence, the test returned a reading of 17.97 mg/litre. A “normal” reading does not exceed 0.50mg/litre.

Lawyers T Shashi Devan, Chan Yen Hui and Chong Kar Yan held a watching brief for Roopan’s family while Siti Nabila Abd Rashid appeared as the conducting officer.

Shashi told reporters outside the courtroom that they will seek instructions from Roopan’s parents on the next course of action.

“We filed a civil lawsuit in the High Court in June against Kajang Hospital. For now, we are awaiting a decision on the discovery of documents for purposes of trial,” he said.

Roopan’s uncle K Siva said the family was disappointed with the outcome of the inquest.