Widow calls for probe into husband's death in police shootout

The widow of M Marimuthu, who was shot by police on May 24 this year, has called for a murder investigation to be launched against the police personnel responsible.

Perak police chief Hasnan Hassan had previously said that the 41-year-old Marimuthu was killed in a police shootout in Air Kuning, Tapah, after they had attempted to stop him because his car bore a false registration number.

Lawyer N Surendran, who is representing Marimuthu’s widow R Vaijenthimala, told Malaysiakini that the official postmortem report contradicts the police’s account of the shooting.

“What the Perak police chief said at the time of the shooting was that the victim (Marimuthu) came out of his vehicle and fired at police. Police returned fire and killed him with two shots to the chest,” he said.

According to Surendran, however, the postmortem showed that a bullet entered Marimuthu’s chest at a 40-degree downward angle.

“It suggests someone was standing above him, not directly in front of him…That angle could not have happened in a face-to-face shootout.

“When you compare the police’s report and the postmortem report, there is a clear-cut contradiction,” said Surendran.

As such, Vaijenthimala lodged a police report at Ipoh police district headquarters this morning, along with family members as well as her lawyers Surendran and Latheefa Koya.

She called for justice to be served for her late husband, herself and her nine-month-old daughter.

“Based on the postmortem findings, I request that all police personnel who were involved in my husband’s death be suspended immediately, and for an independent murder investigation that is free, transparent and professional to be carried out,” she said.

In the report, she also noted two other outstanding issues that Perak police had yet to respond to, that of her husband’s missing car – which was not the car that police said he was found in – as well as her repeated requests for his personal belongings to be returned to her.

Surendran observed that Marimuthu’s widow had only received the postmortem report recently, whereas it would have been given to police much earlier.

“They (the police) should have conducted their own investigation then, or told Vaijenthimala about the postmortem report, but they kept quiet about it,” he said.

The Perak police chief had also said that Marimuthu was leader of “Geng Pam.”

However, Surendran denied this statement, saying, “The family totally rejects the false allegation that Marimuthu was leader of Geng Pam or any other gang.”- Mkini