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Death in custody: Yet again, Government guilty of negligence
KUALA LUMPUR, April 8, 2025: Yet again, the Government was found guilty of negligence in another death in custody case.
The High Court in Shah Alam yesterday awarded RM490,000 in damages to the parents of car park attendant R Anilraj, ruling that prison staff and doctors had been negligent in caring for Anilraj.
Justice Khadijah Idris said Anilraj’s mother R Uthaya Sundari and father R Ravichandran had proven their case on the balance of probabilities.
No News Is Bad News reproduces below a news report on the court proceedings:
Parents of remand victim awarded RM490K in negligence suit against govt
-08 Apr 2025, 11:27 AM
The High Court says prison staff breached their legal duty, while doctors failed to diagnose that R Anilraj had contracted tuberculosis while in custody.
The Shah Alam High Court awarded R Anilraj’s parents RM490,000 in damages and costs of RM150,000.
PETALING JAYA: The parents of car park attendant R Anilraj, who died of tuberculosis while in remand, were awarded RM490,000 in damages after the Shah Alam High Court ruled that prison staff and doctors had been negligent in caring for him.
Justice Khadijah Idris said the deceased’s mother R Uthaya Sundari and father R Ravichandran had proven their case on the balance of probabilities.
The couple had named senior officers and prison wardens, three doctors attached to the Sungai Buloh prison clinic, and the government as defendants in the suit filed in 2021.
In a ruling delivered yesterday, Khadijah said the prison officials had breached their statutory duties under the Prisons Act 1995 and its related regulations.
The judge also held the doctors on duty at the clinic liable for negligence.
Khadijah awarded RM100,000 for pain and suffering, RM300,000 for aggravated damages, RM20,000 for special damages, RM60,000 for loss of support, and RM10,000 for bereavement.
She said the government was vicariously liable for the negligence of its staff and doctors, and ordered that the defendants pay the parents RM150,000 in costs.
Dr S Leelawathy, a public health specialist and lecturer at a private university, was among six witnesses who testified for the plaintiffs. The government, in its defence, led evidence from eight witnesses, including a respiratory physician.
Lawyer PA Sharon represented the parents while senior federal counsel Siti Syakimah Ibrahim appeared for the government.
According to the facts of the case, Anilraj was held in remand at Sungai Buloh prison from April 11, 2018, after he was charged in the sessions court with the possession of drugs.
He was found dead by a cell inmate on Dec 18, 2018.
In their statement of claim, the parents said their son had been healthy and free of tuberculosis prior to his remand.
In July, he complained of being ill and was given medical attention.
In late October, Anilraj developed a fever and an incessant cough. He returned to the clinic and was attended to by the three doctors.
However, the parents claimed that the doctors misdiagnosed Anilraj with a stomach bug and an upper respiratory tract infection, overlooking pulmonary tuberculosis as a possible cause.
After being found by his cellmate, Anilraj was attended to by one of the defendants who declared him dead in the early hours of the morning.
A post-mortem report dated June 1, 2020 revealed that Anilraj had succumbed to tuberculosis which was at an advanced stage.
No inquest was conducted despite a plea by the parents.
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