IPOH, Sept 7 — Four non-governmental organisations (NGOs) today urged police to probe the investigating officer (IO) in charge of security guard Theva Sagayam’s murder case as they are not satisfied with the way the case was handled.

The four NGOs — Persatuan MIAForce, Persatuan Pemas, Persatuan F.I.R.E and Ottrumai Naam Balam Youth — lodged police reports over the matter today at the Ipoh District Police Headquarters.

Persatuan MIAForce president Dayalan Sri Balan, who represented all four NGOs, said that they were not satisfied with how the investigation was conducted by the IO of the case.

"The IO classified the case under Section 335 of the Penal Code, which is for voluntarily causing grievous hurt on grave and sudden provocation.

"This said Section has nothing to do with what really happened. Thava was beaten to death,” he told reporters.

Dayalan pointed out that Section 335 has no minimum imprisonments and the imprisonments are only up to four years and may extend to RM4000 fine or both.

"This means the suspect could possibly walk away with only one-day imprisonments and fine,” he said

"Thava did not make any provocations. The suspect hit the victim with the table which led to his death and there is also video recording on the incident,” he added.

He said the NGOs want police to reclassify the case under Section 302 of the Penal Code for murder.

"We want the suspect to be arrested immediately. It has been 10 days since Thava died. But no action from police on the perpetrator.

"We want police to bring the suspect to court and charge him with murder,” he said.

"How long do we have to wait? We have a murderer walking freely in the public,” he said.

He also said that Thava was a frontliner and should be treated as a hero as he prevented the suspect’s child from using the swimming pool in the condominium, which may have led to possible Covid-19 infection.

The case was initially investigated under Section 335 of the Penal Code with the suspect charged on January, 6 at the Ipoh Magistrates’ Court.

That case is scheduled to be mentioned on September 9.

Perak police chief Mior Faridalthrash Wahid said they have reclassified the case to murder under Section 302 of the Penal Code for murder which carries the mandatory death penalty upon conviction on the day the security guard succumbed to his injuries. 

However, Mior said that police are still awaiting further instruction from the deputy public prosecutor.

It was reported that Thava, 64, who was a condominium security guard here, was beaten up by a visitor reportedly after being barred from using the condo swimming pool on December 29, last year. 

Widely-shared video clips of the incident showed a man approaching the guard aggressively, raising his hands and pointing fingers before slamming a table on the guard who fell on the floor.

The assaulter is seen pacing around the motionless guard while a young child stands nearby.

The assaulter is then seen leaving the scene after lifting the victim’s head and seeing something below it.