Court Rules Police Abused Power In 2019 Rawang Fatal Shooting Incident

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The police were not shooting in self-defence in an incident where three men were gunned down in Rawang three years ago, Shah Alam Coroner’s Court ruled.
Coroner Rasyihah Ghazali said a criminal element existed in the case and that there was an abuse of power by the authorities in the fatal shooting of G Thavaselvan, 31, S Maghendran, 23, and Sri Lankan national V Janarthanan, 40.
Lawyer M Visvanathan, who acted for the family of the deceased, confirmed the verdict in the inquest delivered late afternoon yesterday.
“The coroner found the police to have abused their powers.
“She added that there was a criminal element in the case. The shooting was not in self-defence,” the lawyer said when contacted.
The inquest was conducted to delve into the circumstances surrounding the incident at Jalan Batu Arang which saw three men gunned down by a police team at about 5am on Sept 14, 2019.
Police’s version disputed
Police claimed that the men were suspected to be members of a house break-in gang and that they were killed allegedly during a shootout following a high-speed chase.
Janarthanan, who resided in the UK and was the brother-in-law of Thavaselvan, was in Malaysia together with his wife and their three children for a visit. Maghendran, meanwhile, was Thavaselvan's friend.
However, the family members of Thavaselvan and Janarthanan disputed the police's version of the incident and claimed possible foul play.
They claimed that the three men, together with Janarthanan's wife G Moganambal, had gone out for dinner on that fateful night in a Perodua Alza and not a Volkswagen Polo as claimed by the police when they were shot.
The families also called for the police to investigate and reveal what had happened to Moganambal, whom they said had gone missing since. - Mkini

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