OPINION: The shooting of the three men in Durian Tunggal in Melaka last month has brought about two differing versions of what transpired.
Melaka police chief Dzulkhairi Mukhtar said a police corporal, in his 30s, was injured on his left arm. He said the men, aged between 24 and 29, from Geng Durian Tunggal, were on their way to rob a premises when they bumped into a team of police personnel carrying out Op Casa Melaka at the plantation.
“When police tried to apprehend them, one of them acted aggressively by slashing one of the policemen with a machete, injuring him on his left arm. The police had no choice but to open fire on the three suspects in self-defence,” he said.
Puspanathan Murulitharan, 21; Poonesvaran Tiagarajan, 24; and Logeswaran Georgie, 29 – were killed on Nov 24 during a police operation in Durian Tunggal, a small township in Melaka’s central district.
But the families dispute the explanation. At a press conference, Logeswaran’s wife, who identified herself only as Jayashree, said she had recorded the final minutes of her phone conversation with him during the incident.
She said the recording showed that the three men had been cooperating with officers as they were being detained.
In the clip circulating on social media, which police have not verified, Logeswaran is heard telling his wife that an unmarked Perodua Aruz has been tailing their car. She urges him several times to head for the nearest police station. Minutes later, their vehicle stalls.
The call then captured shouting and pleas for help before loud bangs – allegedly gunfire – rang out. One of the men could be heard saying, “Please don’t, I have a child”.
The families, represented by lawyers from rights group Lawyers for Liberty (LFL), are calling for a Royal Commission of Inquiry (RCI), stating that they say they have “no confidence” in the police to investigate the shooting.
Instead, Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim asked the police to do a transparent inquiry into the shooting.
But rewind to 2019, when a similar incident sparked similar fury and claims and caused the involvement of the British High Commission because one of the victims was a British resident.
But it was the same narrative -- a tale so implausible that even the coroner refused to endorse it. A chronicle was stitched together to paint innocent men as criminals — and to justify their deaths at the hands of trigger-happy police officers.
In the early hours of Sept 14, 2019, Thavaselvan Govindasamy, 31, was driving his guests — his brother-in-law, Janarthanan Vijayaratnam, and a friend, Mahendran Santhira Segaran, 23 — along Jalan Batu Arang in Rawang when a police team opened fire and killed all three.
Janarthanan, 40, a Sri Lankan national and UK resident, had been holidaying in Malaysia with his wife, Moganambal Govindasamy, a 35-year-old Malaysian-born UK resident. She had joined the men for dinner that night — and has been missing ever since.
The couple, who lived in Portsmouth in southern England, had arrived in Malaysia on 27 August with their three children for a holiday.
Police claimed the three men were members of a house‑breaking gang and were killed in a shootout after a high-speed chase. Officers said they had ordered the car to stop in Bandar Country Homes, Selangor, but the driver ignored instructions, triggering a 7km pursuit.
In a statement, Selangor police said the men were shot dead in self‑defence because one of them had opened fire.
They further alleged that Thavaselvan and Mahendran were members of the “08” gang, wanted for a string of robberies, and that Janarthanan had overstayed his visa.
The families rejected the police version, pointing to glaring inconsistencies. Human rights lawyer P. Uthayakumar, representing them, told The Guardian: “The gunshot wounds on all three individuals are on the chest, and one on the head and chest. To me, that is consistent with an execution.”
He added that if the police account were true — a chase, shots fired at officers, and a chaotic exchange of gunfire — “there would be bullets all around.” Instead, he described the official narrative as an “SOS”: a “standard operating storyline.”
In June 2022, nearly three years after the fatal shooting, the truth emerged at the Shah Alam Coroner’s Court.
Lawyer M Visvanathan, who acted for the family of the deceased, said Coroner Rasyihah Ghazali ruled that the police were not shooting in self-defence -- there was a criminal element in the case, and there was an abuse of power by the authorities.
She said scientific evidence about the position of the bodies and the weapons allegedly found on the two men did not tally with the oral testimonies of the policemen.
Co-counsel V Sanjay Nathan also represented the family, said the coroner had ruled that there was a material difference between the police’s testimony and scientific evidence tendered in court.
He said the coroner could not accept the police’s version of the events, as the post-mortem report and forensic expert testimony showed the bullets entered and exited the three men’s bodies at a downward angle.
Sanjay said the court also accepted their submissions that scientific evidence showed two of the deceased were shot when they were behind the car’s open door.
The lawyer said this contradicted the police’s testimony that the two men were shot while they were away from the car.
“The police testified at length, claiming that it was a high-speed car chase and that right before the shooting, the car driven by the three men had ‘terbabas’ (skidded) and crashed.
“But the evidence in court did not reflect this ‘keadaan cemas’ (apprehensive situation).
“Pictures (tendered in court) showed that the car did not sustain visible damage as would be expected of a ‘terbabas’ car,” Sanjay said.
The coroner’s ruling laid bare a fatal breach of protocol and truth -- exposing not a justified operation, but a manufactured story meant to conceal an unjustified killing.
POSTSCRIPT: In December 2022, the next of kin of the two families sued for tort of misfeasance in public office, estate, and dependency claims.
Both suits named Zakiol Kaning, S Prabahakaran Nair, Roslan Ahmad, V Jaya Ganaesh, Fazli Awang, Hairmi Miskon, D Devendran, P Maniam, P Visvanathan, Samsor Maarof and Noor Azam Jamaludin, then IGP Abdul Hamid Bador and the government as defendants.
The plaintiffs alleged that the defendants had been negligent in carrying out their duties, including shooting recklessly at the victims.
They alleged that the defendants had committed tort of misfeasance in public office by violating the Penal Code and the Federal Constitution and depriving the duo of the right to life.
The case is ongoing at the Shah Alam High Court..
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