Kugan death: Court of Appeal reduces damages due

Mr Ramesh Sivakumar of Messrs Goik, Ramesh & Loo was able to persuade the Court of Appeal that on the issue of liability his client, V. Navindran was not solely responsible for Kugan's death.

In a unanimous decision, the three-man panel headed by Justice Datuk Mohamad Ariff Md Yusof agreed with V. Navindran's counsel, Ramesh Sivakumar's arguments on liability that his client was not solely responsible for Kugan's death.

The decision reduced our client, V. Navindran’s share of the damages due to only 45 per cent of the total of the awarded damages, with the police and government paying the remainder.

Mr Ramesh Sivakumar made the following statement after the trial concluded: “The death in police custody of Kugan is very unfortunate, and we fully support the Court’s views that there need to be public and independent inquiries on cases involving custodial deaths”.

Mr Sivakumar continued "We are of course pleased that the Court of Appeal agreed with the core point of our appeal and reduced the damages due by our client with 65 per cent”.