Lawyers allege police 'tampered' with evidence in shooting

 

Lawyers representing the families of three victims in a fatal police shooting last November have accused authorities of “evidence tampering”.

Specifically, lawyer N Rajesh cited “evidence” previously handed over to the police indicating that the incident had allegedly occurred at kilometre 224 of the Plus highway, within the constituency of Rembau, Negeri Sembilan, rather than in Durian Tunggal, Malacca.

“We have new evidence and proof that the incident actually happened along the Plus highway. We even have evidence that the police had gone there to investigate the area along KM224 with their forensic department, so it is definitely the original crime scene.

“Yet somehow, the victims’ bodies were suddenly found in Durian Tunggal,” he said.

“So, we believe that the police moved the crime scene to a different location as part of a massive cover-up.

“It is very clear that evidence has been tampered with, and may have even been destroyed,” Rajesh told Malaysiakini after a memorandum handover outside the Bukit Aman police headquarters this morning.

“So if this is true, then Bukit Aman and the Special Task Force have a duty to charge these officers under Sections 201, 202, and 203 of the Penal Code for destruction and concealing of evidence,” he added.

Lawyers have consistently disputed Malacca police chief Dzulkhairi Mukhtar’s statement that his team had no choice but to open fire at the men, aged 24-29, after one swung a machete at a police officer at a palm oil plantation.

New evidence

On Dec 16, social activist Arun Dorasamy claimed there was more “evidence” to contradict official statements on the deaths of three men allegedly at the hands of police.

Arun, at the time, revealed he received a handwritten letter in Tamil from a whistleblower, along with highway CCTV camera footage, from the alleged murder scene.

The letter included eyewitness accounts from two tow truck drivers who were called to the scene in response to a vehicle stalled along KM224, believed to be the car implicated in the shooting.

The lawyers had also gone to the scene and verified the CCTV’s existence, which they argued would have filmed the entire incident between 1.25am and 2.21am.

The letter and images were handed over to the police in another police report lodged later the same day.

‘Cannot be trusted’

Meanwhile, Rajesh and Arun, alongside lawyer Zaid Malek and the victims’ family members and supporters, gathered outside Bukit Aman today and handed over a memorandum listing urgent actions against the alleged perpetrators.

Speaking to Malaysiakini, Zaid expressed concerns over the police’s integrity in investigating crimes committed by their own members.

Lawyer Zaid Malek

“This is a matter of ‘police officers investigating police officers’. We know in cases of custodial death, in cases of police shooting, throughout the years, we know that the police cannot be trusted when it comes to matters of investigation of their own members.

“So our concern here is that even with direct evidence through the audio recording, that they were executed extrajudicially, that it would still be covered up,” he said.

The audio recording referred to a final phone conversation between M Jayashree and her husband, G Logeswaran - one of the three victims - during the incident.

On Dec 6, Jayashree and the lawyers said that, based on the recording of the conversation, which has been submitted to Bukit Aman, the three men could be heard cooperating with the police while being detained.

Call for PM to do more

Further, Zaid also reprimanded Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim over an alleged failure to ensure that the investigation would be carried out transparently.

“The prime minister can’t just issue a statement.

“We need him to show us and ensure that the police are doing this investigation transparently, and ‘transparently’ means the public should be able to scrutinise what is taking place.

“Right now, this case is putting a spotlight on the entire criminal justice system,” he insisted.

When asked whether they had set a deadline for the police chief to respond to the memorandum, Zaid said they had not set a specific deadline, but they expected the police to act immediately. - Mkini