High Court rules businessman’s fatal shooting is homicide

 

The Ipoh High Court has set aside the coroner’s verdict following a revision application by the deceased’s father.

PETALING JAYA: The High Court in Ipoh has set aside an open verdict delivered in an inquest involving a police shooting in Sitiawan, Perak, nearly eight years ago on grounds that the coroner failed to grasp the evidence presented and correctly rule it a homicide.

Judicial commissioner Moses Susayan said he found no justification for the police to have shot dead businessman G Mohan.

Moses said he was substituting the findings due to the deceased being shot by a known person and the resultant death stemming from an “aim to kill”.

“This court, under the Chief Justice’s Direction No 2 of 2019, makes a finding of homicide against the police,” he said in his judgment delivered today in allowing a revision application by Mohan’s father, A Gopela Krishnan.

Lawyer S Raam Kumar had said coroner Ainul Shahrin Mohammad failed to consider admissions by the deceased’s shooters that they were shooting to kill, and the inquest conclusion was untenable.

Raam had submitted that police failed to adhere to the Inspector-General’s Standing Orders by not giving warning shots or shooting at the leg of the deceased.

He said no bullet casing from the purported revolver used by Mohan was found. Neither were fingerprints, DNA or gunshot residue found on the gun or the deceased.

He said there was no reason given as to why no roadblock was set up if indeed the police were chasing after Mohan.

There was also no suggestion that the tyres of Mohan’s car had been fired at, he said.

Deputy public prosecutor Evangelin Simon submitted that police had chased after the car driven by Mohan.

She said the car skidded, but Mohan got out and fired at the policemen, forcing them to shoot back.

The facts of the case revealed that a police team was conducting an operation along the Sitiawan-Air Tawar road at about 3.15am on Oct 8, 2016, when they saw a car driven by an allegedly suspicious-looking man.

A post-mortem report revealed that Mohan died of excessive bleeding from two gunshot wounds in the chest and another in one of the legs. - FMT