Ustaz, three wardens remanded over death of drug rehabilitation centre inmate

IPOH: An ustaz and three wardens were remanded for a week, in connection with the death of an inmate at a drug rehabilitation centre in Padang Rengas, Kuala Kangsar, due to severe injuries sustained during an amok incident on Wednesday.

Kuala Kangsar district police chief, ACP Omar Bakhtiar Yaacob, said that the remand application for the four men, in their 20s, was made at the Taiping Magistrate's Court today to assist in further investigations.

"They were remanded for seven days, starting today until next Friday," he said when contacted by Bernama here today.

Yesterday, the police arrested the four men to help in the investigations under Section 302 of the Penal Code for murder.

On Wednesday, the police received a report from a doctor on duty at the Kuala Kangsar Hospital, about the death of a 25-year-old man with an address in Shah Alam, Selangor, who was unconscious when brought in a car at 8.10 pm.

The patient, who was brought by an ustaz and three wardens from the rehabilitation centre, was then taken to the emergency ward for a COVID-19 test and X-ray of the victim's body because there were wounds on the forehead and bruises on the face, left eye, chest, both legs and hands.

Prior to that, the victim was reported to be talking to himself in the afternoon and tried to escape, but was held before he tried to injure one of the wardens by using a knife and later ran amok.

The victim was successfully calmed down after a scuffle with the warden, who punched the victim's body several times, However, at 4.45 pm, the victim tried to escape again and jumped from the stairs of the first floor of the building which is about eight metres high.

After being successfully recaptured, the victim's legs and hands were tied and he was brought to the guest room, but the victim hit his head on the floor and wall several times until he bled, before the warden found the victim unconscious at 7.45 pm and took him to the hospital.

However, the post-mortem conducted at Kuala Kangsar Hospital's Forensic unit found that the cause of death was due to chest and musculoskeletal injuries due to blunt trauma.

-- BERNAMA