KUALA LUMPUR: A fatal shooting of three men in Melaka last month by the police is to be reclassified as a murder investigation after an order by Malaysia’s Attorney General’s Chambers (AGC), with Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim on Tuesday (Dec 16) reiterating his pledge of a “thorough and transparent” probe.
The AGC’s order and Anwar’s latest remarks come amid mounting public scrutiny and objections from the families of the three men.
The AGC’s decision was welcomed by the men’s families as well as a lawmaker, who said it raised further questions.
M Kulasegaran, deputy minister in the Prime Minister’s Department (Law and Institutional Reform), questioned on Wednesday what the investigation was previously classified as, and why it was not a murder investigation at the outset.
“Under what provision was the investigation originally classified and why was a murder investigation not initiated at the outset?” Kulasegaran said in a statement.
“While the reclassification is welcomed, public trust in our institutions can only be maintained if the investigation is conducted swiftly and thoroughly.”
Some local media reports said the case was previously investigated as attempted murder.
The families dispute the police’s account of the Nov 24 incident in Durian Tunggal, a township in Melaka’s central district.
The police said the three men, aged 21 to 29, were shot dead by an officer after one of them swung a machete at the cops. The incident occurred at an oil palm plantation at about 4am, with the police saying that an officer suffered serious injuries to his left hand.
Melaka police chief Dzulkhairi Mukhtar earlier said the officers had “no choice but to fire at them in self-defence”.
He added that the three men – M Puspanathan, 21, T Poovaneswaran, 24, and G Logeswaran, 29 – were believed to be on their way to rob a premise and had been committing crimes since 2024.
Purportedly known as the “Durian Tunggal Gang”, they had allegedly been involved in about 20 cases in Melaka and one each in Negeri Sembilan and Selangor that resulted in total losses of RM1.35 million (US$330,194), reported news outlet Malay Mail.
https://www.channelnewsasia.com/asia/malaysia-melaka-fatal-shooting-police-durian-tunggal-murder-5623066
