A FORENSIC expert has rubbished police’s theory on how fireman Muhammad Adib Mohd Kassim sustained injuries during riots at a Subang Jaya temple last November.

Professor Dr Shahrom Adb Wahid, testifying in an inquest into Adib’s death, said the police hypothesis is “wrong” and “was not tested”.

Police had said Adib got hurt when he was hit by the door of an emergency vehicle that he exited on his own, and the impact from being hit landed him on the roadside.

Shahrom said he has studied all the evidence available, and found police’s theory to be incorrect.

“From the clinical examination and post-mortem results, as well as videos of the incident and the reconstruction by police, they came up with the theory that Adib exited the EMRS (emergency medical rescue services) vehicle by himself and was hit by the door, before falling and landing by the roadside.

“This hypothesis is wrong, and it was not tested. I studied it, and found it to be inaccurate,” he said, adding that he conducted his own reconstruction of the incident.

He told the coroners’ court that Adib could have been pulled out of the EMRS vehicle by an individual behind him.

“Rationally speaking, Adib should have closed the door if he saw people charging in his direction. If he saw those people coming, he would have known that he was going to be attacked.

“After reviewing the video (of the incident), I did not see rioters in front of the Fire Rescue Tender vehicle and the EMRS van. There is a possibility that there were others who came from behind, and he was suddenly pulled out of the van.”

Shahrom was asked to give his opinion on what could have happened.

“In my opinion, someone had approached Adib, and he did not realise the individual’s intention. When this person was close enough, Adib was pulled out, and at the same time, another person kicked the van’s door, and as he was pulled out, the door was again kicked by the same person, or a different one.

“Adib was taken down at a 45° angle, and he spun as a result of being pulled, and he was pulled up and slammed against the door, and then, he was pushed down to the ground and he was dragged to the roadside.”

Asked by conducting officer Syazlin Mansor about the post-mortem results, he said he is satisfied with the findings of the two doctors.

Meanwhile Shahrom said he was confused by the contradictions in the autopsy report.

He said he had three major issues with the autopsy report written by a Hospital Kuala Lumpur (HKL) expert.

Shahrom said he was confused whether Adib had got out of the EMRS van on his own or if he was pulled out by someone else, and whether his injuries were due to his being pinned between two hard surfaces.

“(In the autopsy) report, the expert stated that he was not sure,” Shahrom said, in response to a question from lawyer Syazlin Mansor, who is representing the Housing and Local Government Ministry as well as the Fire and Rescue Department, on the 29th day of the inquest.

Shahrom said he was also confused by the testimony of the expert witness that Adib had alighted from the vehicle before he was struck by the vehicle door and thrown by the impact to the road shoulder.

He said this contradicted the autopsy report from the same forensic expert who could not determine whether the firefighter had got down from the EMRS vehicle on his own or had been dragged out by others.

Adib, who was in the emergency response unit of the Subang Jaya Fire and Rescue Station, was badly injured during riots at the Sri Maha Mariamman Temple in Selangor on November 27 last year. He died on December 17 in the National Heart Institute.

Meanwhile, Syazlin objected to an application from Deputy Public Prosecutor Faten Hadni Khairuddin, who is also the conducting officer in the inquest, to recall the 24th witness, HKL forensic expert Dr Ahmad Hafizam Hasmi, 40.

Syazlin said there was no need to recall the witness as this was an inquest and not a trial.

Coroner Rofiah Mohamad instructed both parties to file their submissions on whether or not Dr Hafizam should be recalled and set Monday to hear their arguments. – April 19, 2019.