Durian Tunggal police shootout: Suspend the cops, probe the death threat against lawyer
A government backbencher has reiterated his call to Inspector General of Police Tan Sri Mohd Khalid Ismail to suspend police officers involved in the shooting of three men in Durian Tunggal along with swift probe on the death threat received by the Rajesh Nagarajan – the legal counsel of the victim’s family.
In light of the seriousness of this matter, I now again repeat that the Inspector-General of Police (IGP) must :
- Immediately suspend all police officers involved in the Melaka shooting, or place them on garden leave pending the outcome of a full independent investigation and possible inquest by a coroner .
- Ensure swift and decisive investigation into the death threats issued against Lawyer Rajesh Nagarajan, including identifying and charging those responsible.
- Immediately commission compulsory body cameras nationwide for officers in the D9 (Serious Crime Division) of the Royal Malaysian Police. This is essential to ensure:
• Full compliance with the rule of law
• Transparency in arrests and detentions
• Accountability in all serious crime operations
• Public confidence in policing, especially in view of the recent spate of police shooting incidents nationwide.
The above are the demands of Jelutong MP RSN Rayer who is also a lawyer himself.
He also stressed that any attempt to silence a legal practitioner is an attack to the justice system.
“Under the Federal Constitution of Malaysia, every individual has the fundamental right to legal representation. In a functioning democracy governed by the rule of law, every lawyer must be allowed to discharge their professional duty without fear, favour, intimidation, or threat to their life.
“Any attempt to silence a legal practitioner through threats is not merely an attack on an individual, but an attack on the justice system itself,” Rayer said in a statement.
“According to the information available, the threat was allegedly made via a comment on a now-deleted Malaysiakini Facebook post, on the eve of Rajesh and the families’ scheduled visit to Bukit Aman to submit further evidence.
“This timing is deeply troubling and raises serious questions that warrant immediate and transparent investigation.”
Rajesh had lodged a police report against the death threat he received yesterday.
Earlier today, Rajesh accompanied the families of the three police shootout victims to handover audio recording evidence to Bukit Aman’s head of the Classified Criminal Investigation Unit, Ta Kah Loon.
“Where is the immediate action? Why hasn’t there been any arrest yet? Even the Plus highway CCTV recording has not been checked.
“The families are forced to conduct their own investigation because the police still haven’t started anything after 72 hours,” he said.
He also revealed the information he received from a pathologist in Melaka Hospital.
“The pathologist informed us that the angle of the shot was from top to bottom. If the shot was from the front, the bullet would enter and exit.
“Here, it entered the nose and went down to the heart, suggesting the victim was kneeling and was shot from above.
“This only happens if someone was kneeling and shot from above. This depicts ‘execution-style killing’,” he told reporters outside the Bukit Aman today.