A three-member Court of Appeal bench chaired by Justice Azizah Nawawi, said the High Court granted a global sum of RM250,000 without specifying how much was awarded for exemplary and aggravated damages.
“The appeal is partially allowed with no order to costs,” said Azizah, who sat with Justices Azizul Azmi Adnan and Firuz Jaffril.
The bench, however, dismissed the government’s appeal against liability in the suit filed by B Thayanantha Rao, 55.
Senior federal counsel Siti Syuhada Alwi and Siti Syakimah Ibrahim appeared for the government, while lawyers Mohtarudin Baki and S Jayananda Rao represented the respondent.
In the suit filed in 2021, Thayanantha sought a declaration that his arrests in December 2017 and May 2019 were unlawful. He named five policemen, the inspector-general of police and the government as defendants.
Thayanantha also wanted the police to amend and update their database to remove the link in his name to Shukri Rao Abdullah, who is alleged to have been involved in drug offences.
In 2023, the High Court ruled that the police were just performing their duty when arresting Thayanantha in 2017 and 2019. He said the arrests were a result of mistaken identity, something the police were not aware of at the time.
However, Justice Johan Lee said what happened to Thayanantha during detention in 2019 stemmed from the sheer negligence of the police.
Johan said police should have investigated the matter, especially after Thayanantha had repeatedly said he was the victim of mistaken identity and had offered proof stored on his mobile phone.
As part of the ruling, Johan also rectified all police records which stated that Thayanantha was wanted by the police and that he had previous convictions.
Thayanantha said he was riding a motorcycle along Jalan Imbi at about 3.30pm on Dec 20, 2017, when police stopped him at a roadblock and arrested him for drug-related offences after checking their database.
However, officers at the Brickfields police station told him that although his identity card number matched that of a wanted person, he did not resemble a police photofit of the suspect. They said the wanted person had fraudulently used his identity card.
Upon his release from custody, Thayanantha lodged a police report.
On May 10, 2019, he was stopped again at a roadblock on Jalan Pudu and arrested by two policemen who told him he was linked to certain drug offences.
He explained that it was a case of mistaken identity and lodged another police report.
He was taken to the Dang Wangi police station and kept overnight before he was remanded for another three days without the right to communicate with his family.
After being released on police bail, Thayanantha conducted a search at the national registration department and confirmed that no other person held the same identity card number.
He then filed a report urging police to probe Shukri for allegedly using his identity.