THE police today dismissed claims that they have shot and killed an innocent Sri Lankan national and had labeled him as a wanted criminal.

Selangor police chief Noor Azam Jamaluddin said they have found no record of Janarthan Vijayaratnam – a Sri Lankan national with a United Kingdom (UK) permanent resident status – of entering Malaysia on August 27 as had been claimed by his family.

Janarthan was one of the suspected robbers who were shot dead by police in a shootout in Rawang last Saturday. Police said the men were involved in a number of house robberies.

“Checks showed that there was no record of entrance by Janarthan on August 27. The only record was of his wife Moganambal Govindasamy, who is now missing,” said Noor Azam.

The top cop said Janarthan previously overstayed in the country and was supposed to leave Malaysia under a rehiring programme in 2013.

“He was supposed to leave in 2013, however in 2016, his name emerged as a suspect in a robbery incident in Sentul. The person who mentioned his name to the cops as one of the robbers was Maghendran Santhirasegaran, who died together with Janarthan last Saturday in the shootout,” Noor Azam said.

A police source later informed The Malaysian Insight that Janarthan was believed to be one of the shooters who had opened fire at the chasing cops.

“The two shooters were sitting in the front seat of the Volkswagen car. We believe Janarthan was one of them,” said the officer close to the investigation.

Asked if it is true that Janarthan holds a UK permanent residence status, the cops said that they are in the midst of investigating the claim.

“We are probing into the matter. We will get the clarification from the British embassy,” he added.

On Saturday night, Janarthan, together with his brother in law, Thavaselvan Govindaaamy and Maghendran, were killed in a shootout after a 7km high-speed chase with police.

“Two of the robbers fired shots at police, forcing police to fire six shots at them. The robbers were killed,” Noor Azam told a press conference at the Gombak police headquarters on Saturday morning.

Meanwhile, Noor Azam again said Moganambal, Janarthan’s wife, was not in the car when the incident happened.

“There were only three people in the car. There was no woman,” he said while confirming that a police report was lodged by Moganambal’s sister on her disappearance.

“A missing person report has been opened. We are investigating the matter,” Noor Azam added.

Commenting on the outrage from the public on the killing of the three suspected robbers, Noor Azam said he is open to any investigation including from the Malaysian Human Rights Commission (Suhakam).

“I have got nothing to hide. They are welcome to probe and I will cooperate,” he said.

Noor Azam later said Maghendran and Thavaselvan were both wanted suspects for at least 15 robbery cases.

“We do not know if Janartham was part of the group because there was no record of him entering the country after 2013. So we do not know where he was but his name came up in a robbery incident in 2016,” Noor Azam said.

Yesterday, Moganambal’s family lodged a complaint to Suhakam, demanding answers about the circumstances of the incident.

Lawyer R. Sivahnanthan, who is representing the family of the Sri Lankan national and his wife, questioned how the man could have been involved in a string of house break-ins as the couple had been in the country for only two weeks. – September 18, 2019.