As a 23-year-old P Jayadevan lies unconscious in a hospital bed under intensive care, accusations and counter-accusations are flying wildly on the `real' cause of the tragic accident that occurred in George Town city last Saturday night.

While the victim's aggrieved father, A Poominathan, 51, is convinced that an unidentified policeman had thrown a stone at his son's motorcycle causing the machine to overturn and his son to crash-land on the road, George Town city police chief Assistant Commissioner Azam Abd Hamid denies any involvement of his subordinates in the tragic incident.

Instead, Azam suggested that the accident could have been self-inflicted by Jayadevan's reckless riding while taking part in a Saturday night illegal motorcycle race involving about 300 Mat Rempits in the city.

Poominathan, however, denies this and alleged that the police are covering up the issue.

He has no doubt that it was a policeman who threw a stone at Jayadevan's motorcycle that caused his son to lose control of his machine while he was riding it at Esplanade area at 11pm.

Jayadevan, a tow-truck company runner, sustained severe head injuries and has been lying unconscious and in critical condition for the past three days at the Penang Hospital.

"My son is not a Mat Rempit. The police are lying," Poominathan told malaysiakini after visiting his son at the hospital today.

He also claimed that the police had arrested and remanded his son's friend who was an eyewitness to the incident.

"Police are using intimidating tactics to cover up the case," said Poominathan, who had lodged a police report on Sunday.

Illegal racer

However, Azam denies this and claimed that the young man was arrested due to his involvement in an illegal motorcycle race.

He claimed that the suspect had instigated other motorcyclists to confront a three-man police team who were on duty at the area during an anti-Mat Rempit operation.

Azam stressed that the police were not covering up the case and have started investigating the incident.

"Eyewitnesses are welcome to come forward and testify if it was true a policeman had thrown a stone at Jayadevan," he said.

"We will investigate and initiate necessary action if the allegations are true," Azam told malaysiakini.

It is learnt that the victim and the suspect were colleagues at a tow-truck service company based in the city.

They were resting together with several other colleagues while watching Mat Rempits racing each other near the Dewan Sri Pinang in Esplanade when they were alerted of an accident at another place via a walkie-talkie set.

As the runners were leaving the place on the bikes, it is learnt that a stone flew and hit Jayadevan's machine.

Legal action

Poominathan (photo, blue shirt) plans to file a criminal suit soon against the police to claim damages and has sought legal services from Penang DAP.

The party's state legal bureau chief, RSN Rayer (photo, left)said the DAP would help Poominathan pro bono for the sake of justice.

"No one is above the law. We are calling on the police to conduct an immediate probe into the incident. We cannot allow anyone to get away with murder," he said.

Earlier, Rayer and Penang DAP secretary Danny Law Heng Kiang and Penang DAP chairman Chow Kon Yeow visited Poominathan at the hospital.