Kugan’s mother files complaint with MMC

The late A. Kugan’s mother N. Indra lodged an official complaint with the Malaysian Medical Council (MMC) in a continuing effort to get at the truth behind the death of her eldest son in police custody.
Indra, 41, and her lawyer, N. Surendran, handed over the complaint letter to the MMC’s legal officer C. Perumal at about 3pm on Friday.
Surendran said they want an investigation into possible misconduct by the first pathologist who prepared the post-mortem on Kugan and the Serdang Hospital involved.
“They (Kugan’s family) want an independent investigation into the circumstances surrounding the first post mortem and why there were so many discrepancies between the first report by the Serdang Hospital and the second report by the Universiti Malaya Medical Centre,” he said.
Surendran said that the first report noted that Kugan’s spleen was normal but in the second, there was large area of bleeding.
“We are disappointed that the Serdang Hospital had claimed that the body was tampered with while Health director-general Tan Sri Dr Ismail Merican said, without doing an investigation, that the first post mortem was done properly and inaccuracies were found in the second post-mortem.
Kugan’s family was also disappointed that Health Minister Datuk Liow Tiong Lai had said a secret committee made up of six people would be formed when people want transparency and accountability, he said.
“After Ismail came out, before an investigation, claiming that the first report was fine, we don’t see how we can have any confidence in any probe by the Health Ministry,” he said adding that they hoped the MMC would immediately carry out the investigation in a transparent manner.
Ironically, Dr Ismail, as the Director-General is the ex-officio president of MMC.
Perumal said that any complaint against any practitioners will definitely be investigated according to the Medical Act 1971.
He said he could not give any time frame for the investigation but it would be done as soon as possible.
Until last year, the MMC received 175 complaints against medical practitioners, he said adding that it has jurisdiction over more than 20,000 doctors in the country.
The preliminary investigation committee would make up of prominent medical practitioners, he added.
Also present with Indra at MMC were Kugan’s father G. Sandaran, 44, a handful of relatives, Kapar MP S. Manikavasagam and Police Watch and Human Rights Committee coordinator S. Jayathas.