POLICE must explain the gunshot wounds to the bodies of three men killed by police in a shoot-out, which appear to be under a “shoot to kill policy”, the lawyer for the men’s families said in an open letter to Home Minister Muhyiddin Yassin.

P. Uthayakumar also said there were other injuries to one of the men’s bodies that could not be explained if the men were shot after a chase by police.

“All gunshot wounds were to the chest and face, not the legs, inconsistent with a shootout between suspects and police. Five orphaned children and family want answers,” the lawyer wrote on his Facebook page in a statement addressed to Muhyiddin.

The three dead men have been named as Janarthanan Vijayaratnam, a Sri Lankan with permanent residency in the UK; his brother-in-law, Thavaselvan Govindasamy; and, Maghendran Santhirasegaran, a friend.

They were killed on September 14 in a shoot-out with police in Batu Arang in Gombak, Selangor. Police say the three were in a car that defied an order to pull over.

Uthayakumar said Janarthanan and Magendran had gunshot wounds to the chest, and Thavaselvan to the chest and head or face.

“The family demands answers from the home minister and Inspector-General of Police Hamid Bador as to why there were no gunshot wounds to the legs… if this encounter was not a shoot to kill policy by the Malaysian police,” he said.

Uthayakumar added that there were also bruises on Thavaselvan’s head and body, and he had a hand broken and tooth.

Thavaselvan’s widow informed the lawyer of these injuries after bringing his body home today from Sungai Buloh Mortuary, Uthayakumar added.

He also pressed the case of Janarthanan’s wife, Moganambal Govindasamy, whom family members claimed was with her husband at the time in the car but is now missing.

Police have said there was no evidence of a woman having been in the car with the suspects.

Uthayakumar said he sent letters to the IGP dated September 17 and September 20 about Moganambal but had yet to be informed of her whereabouts, and called her case one of “enforced disappearance”.

“It is a tragedy and misery enough that their father has been killed by the police but how do (their children) they leave the country next week to resume schooling ‘empty handed’, also without their mother,” he said.

The IGP has called for an inquest into the shootings, which Uthayakumar yesterday slammed as a waste of time.

Janarthanan’s family is also disputing the police’s allegations that he was involved in a 2016 house break in, as he was in the UK at the time, and that there was no record of him entering Malaysia recently before his death. – September 22, 2019.