Family of Taiping Prison inmate Gan Chin Eng seeks court order for CCTV footage linked to his death

The family of inmate Gan Chin Eng has filed a High Court application seeking CCTV recordings from Taiping Prison linked to a Jan 17, 2025 assault-riot that allegedly led to his death.

KUALA LUMPUR: The family of the late Gan Chin Eng, who is alleged to have died in custody, has filed an originating summons at the Taiping High Court seeking an order to obtain closed-circuit television (CCTV) recordings linked to an assault-riot at Taiping Prison in Perak on Jan 17, 2025.

The application names the director of Taiping Prison, the director of Perak Prisons, the Prisons Department, the Home Ministry and the government of Malaysia as defendants.

The application by Gan Thean Soo, 38, was filed on March 2 through Messrs Sundari. Thean Soo is the eldest son and administrator of the deceased’s estate.

The family’s counsel, T. Shashi Devan, said the case has been fixed for mention on April 7.

In the application, the plaintiff is seeking a High Court order for pre-trial discovery of seven time-stamped CCTV recordings linked to the assault-riot at the prison.

He is also seeking an order for the recordings, including all original files with intact timestamps and metadata, to be discovered and produced.

The plaintiff further wants his solicitors and/or counsel to be permitted to disclose and play the recordings for the viewing of relevant stakeholders, including Members of Parliament, civil society groups and the Malaysian Bar, to raise awareness and introduce reforms in the public interest.

Among the grounds cited in support of the application are:

The plaintiff stated that the seven recordings provide an unfiltered, time-stamped account of the sequence of events that no other evidence can replicate.

He also said there is no alternative means of obtaining the evidence, as the defendants are the sole custodians of the recordings. It was confirmed during the Suhakam inquiry that the recordings were in their possession, custody or power.

The plaintiff added that early discovery would allow a more informed and efficient resolution of the dispute while preventing the risk of the recordings being overwritten, deleted or otherwise rendered unavailable.

Nearly 11 months after Twentytwo13 first broke the story of Gan’s death, a 25-year-old prison warden, Ryndee O’nel Victor, was charged on Dec 19 at the Taiping Magistrate’s Court with causing the death of the 62-year-old.

In June last year, Suhakam launched a public inquiry into alleged human rights violations linked to the Jan 17 incident at Taiping Prison that led to Gan’s death.

Among those who testified were Prisons Department officials and Taiping Prison wardens. The findings of the inquiry, which ended in December, have yet to be made public.