Dead but alive: Probe incident that led to Negri family’s ordeal, says Kula

KUALA LUMPUR: An independent investigation must be conducted into the incident where a family in Negri Sembilan was wrongfully informed of their son's death in prison, says a government backbencher.

M. Kulasegaran (PH-Ipoh Barat) urged the government to take stern action against prison officers who were negligent in this incident.

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"Is the government prepared to conduct an independent probe of this incident," he asked while debating the Supply Bill 2023 in Parliament today.

He also questioned how authorities had got the situation mixed up when all inmates were assigned identification numbers.

“How did they send the (misidentified) body, how was the death registered and the death certificate produced?

"How is it possible that a person who was still alive could be said to be dead?” he added.

He also asked if the government was willing to apologise and offer monetary compensation.

“Is the government going to take action to ensure that such incidents do not happen again?” he said.

In the incident, a mourning father in Negri Sembilan was shocked to find out that his son, who authorities said had died while in custody at the Sungai Buloh Prison on Feb 28, is still alive.

The father, who only wanted to be identified as Chantren, told Sinar Harian that the family's ordeal started when he received a call from the prison authorities on Wednesday (March 1), saying his son had died in jail.

However, he did not know why the youth was in prison in the first place.

Chantren was told to claim his son's remains at Hospital Sungai Buloh, which he did together with other family members.

"When we looked (at the remains), we noticed that the face was different after the post-mortem because there were suture marks and his hair had also been shaved," he told reporters at his house in Taman Desa Permai.

Upon claiming the body, Chantren and his family prepared for funeral rites at their home in Tampin and made arrangements to bury their son's remains.

However, to the family's surprise, they were informed just a few hours before the burial that the 19-year-old boy was still alive.