THE three children of a man shot dead in a recent police shoot-out in Batu Arang, Gombak, have left the country for the United Kingdom, said P. Uthayakumar.

The family’s lawyer said the children – aged 17, 10 and 5 ­– flew back to the UK three days ago, fearing for their safety.

“All three left Malaysia for the UK and said that they will never come back. They left quietly and we did not want it to be publicised. They feared for their safety here,” said Uthayakumar.

“Luckily, they had their passports with them. Only their UK PR card was with their missing mother, Moganambal Govindasamy,” he added.

Their father, Janarthanan Vijayaratnam – a Sri Lankan national with UK permanent resident status – was shot dead by police two weeks ago. Two others – Thavaselvan Govindasamy and Maghendran Santhirasegaran – were also killed in the September 14 incident.

All three were accused of fleeing from the police and shooting at the cops following a 7km high-speed car chase at Km22 of Jalan Batu Arang.

Police suspected the trio of being robbers, and seized two pistols, machetes and ski masks, while the car they were in was a stolen vehicle.

Moganambal has since been reported missing. Police said the woman was not in the car when the three were gunned down.

However, the families of the victims said Moganambal was with the men prior to the shooting.

Meanwhile, Uthayakumar said the police had been harassing Thavaselvan’s family, despite them being in mourning.

“They (police) were informed that if they needed anything from the family, they could write to me as, their lawyer. However, they refused to do so despite being told that the family was grieving their loss.

“Thavaselvan’s sister was forced to go to the police station to have her statement recorded for two hours. When I questioned the police officer, he accused me of obstructing his official duty but the police officer was interferring with my job as a solicitor,” said Uthayakumar.

Uthayakumar said he could produced all the evidence necessary should he be appointed special counsel by the authorities.

“Like Gopal Sri Ram or even Muhammad Shafee Abdullah, give me the power as a special counsel and I can bring you the evidence.

“I can show you that in 2016, Janarthanan was in the UK working as a store manager and he was paying his taxes there. How can he be involved in a robbery here? The police were lying,” he said.

The police had previously said Janarthanan, who had overstayed in Malaysia, had joined a rehiring programme in 2013.

The cops said they had no information about Janarthanan’s whereabouts since 2013 but in 2016, his name came up as a robbery suspect in a Sentul incident.

Police said his name was mentioned by Magendran, who was detained at that time as another suspect.

Uthayakumar also said the cops had yet to hand over the autopsy reports of all three men to their respective families.

“We believe the shooting was nothing but an execution. The family believes they were kidnapped and then murdered. The injuries were consistent with an execution style.

“If the police are arguing that the suspects shot first, where were the bullet marks? Were there any bullet holes in the patrol car? How come none of the policemen were injured?” he questioned. – September 29, 2019.