Thesun 2009-05-06 Page07 Tsu Koon Wont Attend Inquiry On Land Case

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| WEDNESDAY MAY 6 2009

news without borders Samples taken from Sujatha missing: Docs

Tsu Koon won’t attend inquiry on land case by Himanshu Bhatt [email protected]

GEORGE TOWN: Former chief minister Tan Sri Dr Koh Tsu Koon has turned down a request from the state government to attend an inquiry into a land deal under the previous administration that may cost Penang some RM40 million. Koh, now a minister in the Prime Minister’s Department charged with unity and performance management, sent a fax to the office of Deputy Chief Minister Prof Dr P. Ramasamy on Monday declining to take part. “We got a brief reply from him that he will not come because he feels we will politicise the issue,” Ramasamy, who heads the state government’s investigation committee to look into the case, told a press conference at Komtar yesterday. “He advised us to make an appeal and get good legal advice in preparation for the case, so as to get the quantum reduced.” The High Court had ordered the state government on Feb 19

to deposit RM14,678,135 with the court within two months. The order was made pursuant to a suit by one Tan Hak Ju against the Penang chief minister, state secretary and the state financial officer over a land deal. The amount comprises half of the RM29.3 million the state owes Tan, which could total about RM40 million because of interest. Ramasamy said the committee has also not heard from former state executive councillor Datuk Dr Teng Hock Nan, who has also been requested to help in the investigations. Former deputy chief minister Datuk Seri Abdul Rashid Abdullah, who served as head of the land committee from 2004 to 2008, has also refused to attend, he said. “If they don’t turn up, there is nothing much we can do,” Ramasamy said, stressing that it was a “moral question” for them to cooperate. Abdul Rashid’s predecessor, Datuk Seri Dr Hilmi Yahaya, however, met the committee to

give his input on the case two months ago, Ramasamy said. Hilmi, who was the deputy chief minister and state land committee chairman from 1999 to 2004, had admitted the blunder at the state assembly in July last year. Ramasamy said the former state leaders’ feedback was important to help the state come up with a way to mitigate the financial impact of the case. For example, the government needed to know why an earlier compensation amount of RM1.855 million, which was accepted by Tan in July 2004, was not pursued by the then state administration. Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng had said the court’s ruling would place a tremendous financial loss on the state, which does not have any contingent liability. He said the state would nevertheless find the money to pay up and would continue pursuing its social projects, such as the Senior Citizens Appreciation Programme, despite the financial strain to its coffers.

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KUALA LUMPUR: Missing samples. This was the highlight of the inquest into the death of local actress K. Sujatha as it entered its fourth day yesterday. Two doctors of the Tengku Ampuan Rahimah Hospital testified that they could not confirm what actually happened to the samples taken from the actress. First, Dr Vengkata Prathab said he ordered samples of blood, urine and gastric lavage to be taken from the actress on the first day she was taken to the hospital’s emergency ward on June 19, 2007. “I had ordered these samples to be taken immediately after she arrived at the emergency ward. However, doctors who treated her at the normal ward did not receive the report on the tests,” he said. Prathab agreed with DPP Anselm Charles Fernandis, who was assisting coroner Mohd Fauzi Che Abu, that the results of the samples were very crucial to conclude conclusively that the patient died due to poisoning. He told the coroner that personally, he had a bad experience when samples taken from his mother were also reported missing. He said that although such cases occurred occasionally, doctors should not be singled out for blame as it involved several departments of the hospital. “In Sujatha’s case, other doctors and I focused more in giving emergency treatment to the patient.” He was testifying at the inquest into the death of Sujatha, 28, who

died at the hospital in Klang on June 25, 2007, four days after admission for allegedly drinking weedkiller. The episode of missing samples did not end there. Medical officer Dr Lim Ai Wei testified that she had taken urine samples of Sujatha the following day to check for traces of paraquat. “When I failed to receive the result the following day, I personally went to the lab to check what had happened. But staff at the lab claimed that they did not receive the sample from the ward where Sujatha was treated,” she explained. Earlier, Sujatha’s youngest brother told the Coroner’s Court he and his older brother requested doctors not to conduct a postmortem on their sister’s body. Surenthiran, 26, said since the cause of her death was clearly stated as paraquat poisoning in the death certificate, they had wanted to stop her body from being cut into pieces during the post mortem. To a question by DPP Geethan Ram Vincent, who is also assisting the coroner, as to why he allowed Paari to issue a press statement to say that Sujatha died due to an ovarian cyst, Surenthiran said it was his family’s request. “My family wanted Paari to issue the statement, mainly to protect my sister’s dignity even though we are aware that the statement was not accurate and false,” he said. The inquest continues today. – Bernama