Court reserves judgment on third bid to reopen inquiry into inmate’s death

SINGAPORE — The apex court has reserved judgment on the third bid by a woman fighting against the discontinuation of a coroner’s inquiry into her son’s death in prison.

An inquiry into Dinesh Raman Chinnaiah’s death under custody on Sept 27, 2010, which had originally been slated for July last year, was called off by the State Coroner after a senior prison officer pleaded guilty to and was convicted for negligence in overseeing a botched restraint operation that led to the 21-year-old’s death.

Madam Selvi Narayanasamy subsequently wrote to the Attorney-General’s Chambers requesting the inquiry into her son’s death to be reopened. When she was turned down, she went to the High Court seeking a judicial review of the chambers’ decision.

Her case was thrown out again, leading her to bring it to the Court of Appeal.

Yesterday, Mdm Selvi’s lawyer M Ravi argued that the State Coroner had acted “illegally or irrationally” in discontinuing the inquiry since there had been no full hearing — due to the prison officer pleading guilty — and evidence relating to the cause of and circumstances surrounding Dinesh’s death was not heard, he said.

A coroner’s inquiry was therefore “absolutely indispensable to bridging evidential gaps”, he added.

Mr Ravi also argued that the State Coroner’s jurisdiction should be wider than that of a forensic pathologist. Instead of just determining the most plausible immediate cause of death, a coroner should conduct a “conclusive investigation of the manner in which the deceased died, as well as the underlying circumstances surrounding his death”, he added.

Mr Ravi also argued that the State Coroner, in deciding to discontinue the inquiry, had not taken into account statements that prison officers had initially made in preparation for the inquiry.

In response, Senior State Counsel Tai Wei Shyong said the contention that the State Coroner had failed to consider these statements was “unsupported by any evidence”.

He also reiterated that Mdm Selvi had not raised any objection at the first instance when the State Coroner announced the discontinuation of the inquiry.

Criminal prosecution — in the form of the prison officer Lim Kwo Yin being fined S$10,000 — had been concluded and the Government had also written to Mdm Selvi to admit liability for Dinesh’s death, noted Mr Tai.

And with a civil suit having been taken out by her against 10 prison officers, including Lim, for intentional assault and wrongful act causing the death of her son, reopening or continuing the inquiry would result in two sets of proceedings with the same witnesses being called to testify and cross-examined in court, Mr Tai added.