The pathologist who carried out the first post-mortem on death-in-police-custody victim A Kugan, Dr Abdul Karim Tajuddin, has been reprimanded by the Malaysian Medical Council (MMC) for failing to conduct a proper examination and prepare an honest report.Yesterday MMC concluded its inquiry into the conduct of Abdul Karim and found that he had “neglected and disregarded his professional responsibilities by failing to conduct a proper examination and preparing and honest report”.The Serdang Hospital pathologist had failed to fulfil the requirement under item No 4 of the Guidelines of the Malaysian Medical Council on ‘Ethical Implications of Doctors in Conflict Situations’, the MMC inquiry report said.

Kugan was said to have been brutally tortured to death by the police at the Subang Jaya’s Taipan-USJ police station on Jan 20, 2009.

The first post-mortem was carried out by Abdul Karim, whose report stated that Kugan had died from pulmonary edema or “water in the lungs”.

However, his findings were disputed in a second post-mortem carried out by Universiti Malaya Medical Centre pathologist Dr Prashant N Samberker.

Prashant, who had also testified in the MMC inquiry, found that Kugan to have died from severe beatings while in police custody in January 2009, resulting in the failure of his kidneys.

Kugan’s mother N Indra (right) then filed a complaint against Abdul Karim with the MMC.

Responding to the MMC’s findings, the lawyers representing Indra, N Surendran and M Manogaran, said the punishment meted out to Abdul Karim – a mere reprimand – was inadequate in view of the offence committed.

“However, we welcome the finding of guilt, which vindicates the stand of Kugan’s family from the very beginning that Kugan had been beaten and tortured to death by police personnel,” Surendran and Manogaran said in a statement yesterday.

Surendren is a vice-president of PKR, while Manogaran is the MP for Teluk Intan.

In January, the Petaling Jaya Sessions Court had acquitted 28-year-old police constable V Navindran, who had been charged with causing grievous hurt to detainee Kugan, without his defence being called.

The Attorney-General’s Chambers has filed a notice of appeal against the decision.