KUALA LUMPUR: An autopsy revealed that an ethnic Indian man in Malaysia was tortured and beaten to death in police custody, a lawyer for his family said yesterday .

Ananthan Kugan died on Jan. 20 after six days in detention.

His death has become an emotionally charged issue for ethnic Indians, though politicians and activists insist the problem is not one of race, but of justice and police accountability.

Malaysian Indians have long complained of racial discrimination.

Kugan was arrested on suspicion of being a car thief.

An initial government autopsy showed he died from liquid in his lungs, but a second one commissioned by Kugan’s family revealed he died from kidney failure following a severe beating, said N. Surendran, the family’s lawyer.

Kugan’s back was also burned with V-shaped marks, likely caused by a hot iron, Surendran said.

“The death was caused by severe beating,” Surendran said. “We are calling for the people who did this to Kugan to be charged with murder and nothing less than murder.”

Attorney General Abdul Gani Patail has said the case was classified as a murder and police were investigating. Allegations of police brutality, corruption and abuse of power are not uncommon in Malaysia.

Activists say more than 80 detainees — mainly ethnic Indians — have died under questionable circumstances in the past decade. Prosecutions in such cases are rare.

Malaysia’s police force is dominated by the ethnic Malay majority, which accounts for about 60 percent of the country’s 27 million people.

Ethnic Indians comprise about eight percent and are among the poorest citizens.