The least the Police should do is to apologise for the mistake of assaulting Dr. Thanendran Renganathan

-M. Kulasekaran, Memeber of Parliament, October 21, 2016.

kulaunilateralconversionYesterday, Inspector General of Police Khalid Abu Bakar said police will not apologise for assaulting Dr Thanendran Renganathan whom they mistook for a robbery suspect.

 

“I regret what happened, but we will not apologise. We were just carrying out our duty,” Khalid said, adding that the public needed to cooperate in such situations and the doctor in question should have stayed put when warned.

However, there were reports that the doctor had tried to run away out of fears as the police officers had no identifying markings or police insignia.

 

The doctor’s reaction was not and should not be a surprise as the raid had happened at a food stall inside the grounds of Hospital Serdang. Who would have thought that the Police would be there to nab robbery suspects?

 

It was reported that Thanendran had said in a police report that the pleas of a senior doctor, who came to the scene of the arrest and vouched for him had also fallen on deaf ears, and police refused to release him.

 

Instead, the elite police team took him to the nearby Sri Serdang police station for further interrogation. So why did the police not accept the senior doctor’s pleas? Could yrsayigpisthe IGP explain and justify the Police’s actions?

 

Since there are conflicting claims on the incident as well as questions that need to be cleared up, an independent committee should be set up to determine the truth.

 

There is one immediate question which Kahlid should however answer.  Is it not true that the Police while carrying their duty assaulted the doctor who was not a robbery suspect?  Is it therefore not true that a mistake has happened in that an innocent individual public was assaulted?

 

Even if the Police had complied with all the standard operating procedures (SOP) or even if the doctor ought not to have run away as claimed by the Police, when it was found later that a mistake has happened in that an innocent public has been assaulted, what is so difficult for the Police to tender an apology?

 

Mr IGP discard your arrogance and adopt tolerance and magnanimity on behalf of the police force. Is this too much to ask by Malaysians?

 

Nobody is above the law and that includes the police.
While waiting for the Committee’s investigation outcome on whether the Police had strictly followed all the procedures while carrying their duty, the least IGP should do is to apologise for the Police’s mistake in assaulting the doctor.