The Kuala Lumpur Magistrate's Court was today told that efforts to pull police detainee G Francis Udayappan out of the Klang river during his alleged escape five months ago failed because he refused to grab on to a rope offered by the police.

Magistrate Nazran Mohd Sham - acting as coroner - listened intently to L/Kpl Zamrin Zaid who was called in today to continue relating the accounts of events on April 16 when Francis (left) is said to have jumped into the river in a bid to escape after being detained for a theft case.

"After my calls for him to swim to the river bank were ignored, I shouted to my colleagues present to get me a rope to try and get the Indian male out of the river," said Zamrin prompted by Deputy Public Prosecutor (DPP) Ishak Mohd Yusoff.

Zamrin informed the court that the five attempts made to rope Francis out of the river failed because the escapee refused to grab on to the rope (which was presented as evidence in court) even though the noose landed close to him.

"Just when we were securing a rope around another officer who volunteered to jump in the river to save the Indian male, I noticed the escapee disappear - completely submerged in the water," he added.

The police personnel present continued to search the area for 20 minutes but had to shelve their efforts when it began to rain heavily, Zamrin explained, while confirming that he remembered seeing a pair of handcuffs hanging from Francis' left hand before he sank.

Lawyer injured

The inquest is being held to conclusively identify a body lying in the University Malay Medical Centre which has been claimed by Francis' mother G Sara Lily.

However DNA tests conducted using her blood sample and bone marrow tissue from the body fished out from the Klang River on May 23 failed to prove a match.

M Puravelan, who is representing Sara Lily was not present at court to examine the witness as he was injured in a horse-riding mishap yesterday.

His colleague CH Oh asked the coroner to allow for the examination to be reserved tentatively till Oct 25 due to Puravelan's serious medical condition.

Met later, Francis' family were upset with the police officer's testimony claiming that it was untrue because Francis had called them the day before his alleged escape informing them of his release the next day.

The family has always disputed the police's version of the events and have maintained that Francis died while in police custody and his body dumped in the river.