PETALING JAYA: Urimai chairman P Ramasamy today questioned the likelihood of a fair investigation by the federal police into the case of three men shot dead by cops in Melaka last month, following the announcement that Bukit Aman would be taking over the probe.
Welcoming Bukit Aman’s involvement in the case, he nevertheless pointed to the outcome of similar cases in the past.
“There have been too many cases involving police shootings of ‘criminals’ and ‘thieves’, but very seldom are the police personnel involved hauled up and charged,” he said.
He said that without an independent police commission, nothing much could be expected from the force.
In a statement, he expressed hope that Bukit Aman criminal investigation department chief M Kumar would prove him wrong by ordering an independent probe into the incident and making the findings public.
Last night, Kumar said that Bukit Aman would take over the probe, confirming a police report lodged by the men’s families expressing dissatisfaction with the police’s action during the incident.
Kumar also said that his department had formed a special team to take over the investigation, including to examine the police reports lodged by the families of the three suspects.
Lawyers representing the families of the three men – M Puspanathan, 21, T Poovaneswaran, 24, and G Logeswaran, 29 – had demanded that Bukit Aman investigate their deaths, claiming that they were killed “execution-style”.
Melaka police initially investigated the Nov 24 incident for attempted murder under Section 307 of the Penal Code, after police chief Dzulkhairi Mukhtar claimed the trio were serial robbers who had attacked an officer with a parang.
