REPORT OF AN INDEPENDENT INQUIRY ... - Hundred Families

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16. The police officers discussed the situation and concluded that they had no reason to require
Chandran to leave the property. They then left, advising Chandran and his father that they could
call the police if they required help in the future.
Comment
(1) Chandran’s probation officer was not informed that the police had been called to the
property although the police were aware of his conviction and one of the police officers
(although not a trained mental health professional) thought his behaviour was “odd”.
Again, the police say that there was no reason to communicate with the probation
service and no breach of any guidance or protocol in not doing so. As we have observed
above, we consider that the issue of communication about mentally disordered offenders
between the two services should be reviewed.
(2) No link was made between this request for help via the 999 call and the family’s request
for help at East Ham Police Station only six days earlier.
17. On 2nd November 2001, the same two police officers were contacted when they were starting
their tour of duty at 9pm and asked to identify Chandran. Narayanan Sukumaran had been found
dead and there was information to suggest that Chandran had killed his father. They went to
Forest Gate Police Station where they identified Chandran as the man they had spoken to on the
previous evening.
18. Narayanan Sukumaran’s body had been found at about 8pm by some of his family members. He
was covered with a sheet. He had sustained extensive external and internal injuries which were
said in the pathology report to be “consistent with having been caused by repeated blows onto
face such as punches, stamps from a shod foot and/or stroke or kicks”. The cause of death was
given as cardiac failure, ischaemic heart disease and severe facial injuries.
19. Chandran told us he was not “feeling right” that day and he got into an argument with his father.
He described what happened to the Inquiry Panel:
“I started seeing faces and my father was laughing. Everything I said he was laughing at me
- I thought maybe the devil was playing tricks with my mind. I kept coming forward and I hit
him. I was frightened and he went down and hit the television. I saw him standing and I was
still seeing faces and I put the bed sheet over him. I thought maybe the devil was my father.
He was standing there strong and then I walked out of the house. I thought the devil was in
there and I could run away. “
20. When he was told of Narayanan Sukumaran’s death, Biju Ramkrishnan went to Chandran’s flat. He
found Chandran there and called the police. He said that Chandran “wasn’t in the right state of
mind” and, when the police did not arrive immediately, he decided to drive him to the police station.
21. Chandran was arrested by PC Lomas at 21.40 hours on 2nd November 2001 at Forest Gate Police
Station on suspicion of having murdered his father. The police learned that he had mental health
problems and a Forensic Medical Examiner (“FME”), Selladurai Shanmugadasan, examined him at
about 21.30 hours on 2nd November 2001. At that time, Dr Shanmugadasan found no evidence of
hallucination and decided that he was fit to be detained and interviewed in the presence of an
Appropriate Adult.