TBH: Scenarios Point to Suicide

By Eagle Eye

The Royal Commission of Inquiry (RCI) to enquire into the death of Teoh Beng Hock has been led with a trial of evidences that points to suicide. Like it or not, the formal evidences and statements tendered in court during the proceedings are authenticated and thoroughly vetted by legal and medical experts.

Federal Court judge James Foong presides over the inquiry along with former federal judge Abdul Kadir Sulaiman, ex-Court of Appeal judge T. Selventhiranathan, Penang Hospital’s senior consultant forensic pathologist Dr Bhupinder Singh and Cyberjaya University College of Medical Science’s dean and consultant forensic psychiatrist Prof Dr Mohamed Hatta Shaharom.

During the inquiry, it was suggested that the deceased may have suffered hypoglycemia (low blood sugar) and low cholesterol level which prompted him to jump out of the window. Unfortunately, the chemist department could not back this possible reason for suicide as they did not examine these aspects.

Medical findings show that those with low glucose level or low cholesterol levels are “twice as likely to have ever made a medically serious suicide attempt”. Studies also say that “low cholesterol concentration should be further investigated as a potential biological marker of suicide risk.” Dato Shafee said during the RCI that health factors may cause “abnormality of mind”.

Also, the inquiry today was told by Investigating Police Officer ASP Ahmad Nazri that none of one of the other three witnesses who were questioned at the same time – Harun, Tan Boon Hwa and Lee - had seen Teoh being mistreated. Neither did they claim they were assaulted, said ASP Nazri.

Another theory that aroused during the inquiry is that if someone had flung the body out of the building, it would have landed right beside the wall. However, the body was found quite a distance away from the side wall of the building. This is supported by forensic pathologist Dr Khairul Azman when he testified at the inquest earlier: “in my opinion, he just climb up and jumped”. Dr Khairul explained that this is because the deceased was found a measurable distance away from the side wall of the 5^th floor corridor.

During the inquiry, ASP Ahmad Nazri also stated that marks were found at the soles of the deceased’s shoes. During the inquest earlier, pathologist Dr Prashant told the coroner that “.. most likely manner of death in the present case in my opinion would be suicidal or self inflicted death.. The injuries sustained were consistent with a fall from height, ..  the scratch marks found to the undersurface of Teoh’s shoes were consistent with a person squatting or sitting on a window frame and that there were no signs of asphyxiation or defence wounds… rule out accidental death as Teoh’s toxicology report was negative which indicated he was not under the influence of alcohol or drug…”

All these evidences clearly lead to suicide and nothing else.