JOHOR BARU, Nov 30 — Johor police chief Datuk Ayob Khan Mydin Pitchay today denied there had been 255 lock-up deaths in the state, as alleged in a Facebook posting recently.

He said statistics from 2000 to 2014 showed there had been only 23 deaths involving lock-up detainees in Johor, the majority of whom were drug addicts whose cases were classified as sudden death.

Ayob Khan said the man who made the allegation through a video on Facebook, known as N.Ganeshparan, 38, had in fact been dissatisfied over the arrest of a human rights activist, K. Haridas for threatening a police officer in 2017.

Investigations found that Ganeshparan, who is from Seremban, had seven previous criminal records and was now in Germany, he said.

"He had been arrested five times from 2010 until 2017. This individual left Malaysia on Nov 2, 2017, that is why he dares to allege such things, if you (Ganeshparan) are brave enough, come back to Malaysia.

"He used to be in Qatar and we believe he is now in Germany ... the allegation that 255 detainees were beaten to death in the lockup is not true..I do not know where he got those statistics from,” he told a media conference here today.

Ayob Khan said claims that Haridas was beaten up by the police were also untrue.

"Haridas was not beaten up in the police lock-up. He lodged a report of being beaten up when he was detained at the Ulu Choh remand prison. His arrest is not even an issue as he was detained for a previous offence committed in 2017… his allegations against me is in the investigation papers.

Ayob Khan was asked about the video uploaded on the Facebook page of one ‘Ganesh Nadaraja’, who had been dissatisfied with the state police chief over K. Haridas’ arrest as well as over several other allegations.

The previous records involving Ganeshparan were in connection to robbery, theft, criminal intimidation and sedition, he said. — Bernama