PKR aide's murder - IGP urged to set up special task force

K. Murugan was the bodyguard and campaign worker for Tapah parliamentary candidate K. Vasantha Kumar. The 36-year old's body was found at the pond of Bemban industrial park in Batu Gajah on May 4, face smashed, body slashed and tied with barbed wire.

Vasantha Kumar, together with representatives 20 NGOs, turned up at Bukit Aman today demanding an audience with Khalid.

A memorandum, by the NGOs, was handed over to the police seeking for a high-profile probe over the murder that would not exclude a political angle.

"Political murder is something very serious and must be dealt with the same status as investigations against people like Adam Adli for his allegedly seditious comments or PKR's Nik Nazmi over a rally," said Suaram coordinator R. Thevarajan.

He was together with NGOs reps such as Warga Aman, KL Selangor Chinese Assembly hall, Malaysians for Beng Hock, and Amnesty International Malaysia.

Lawyer for the family M Visvanathan said that the Murugan family just wanted a transparent and in detail investigation by the police.

"We want an investigation without fear or favour or any regard to political alliance. The family just want to know the true cause of death, who did it and the motive behind it," said Visvanathan.

Vasantha Kumar said that this was the third time a written plea has been handed over to the police.

"There was a total of six police reports lodged between April 18 to May 6 on intimidation and death threats against myself and my campaign workers," he said.

Vasatha Kumar said that the police should investigate these reports and asked that statements be taken from Datuk M. Saravanan, his political opponent in Tapah.

Saravanan, who is now the youth and sports deputy minister, won Vasantha Kumar by a majority of 7,927 votes in the Tapah seat in a four-way battle. Saravanan also beat Berjasa's Shaharuzzaman Bistamam as well as Tapah PKR division chief Ridzuan Bani, who contested as an independent candidate.

Ridzuan was reportedly saying that the decision to compete as an independent came following requests from the division's committee members, party members and supporters -- who were unhappy with the choice of candidate announced by the party leadership.

Meanwhile, a representative from Bukit Aman ASP Rizal Abd Rahman Sidek received the memorandum, saying that he would forward the information to the IGP. However, he could not promise the group that they would be able to meet Khalid.