The MIC Youth wing is not satisfied with the manner six men were shot dead by the police in Kulim earlier this week and is seeking a full disclosure on the shootout.
At the same time the youth wing is also seeking legal opinions from top lawyers in the country on the shooting of the six suspected criminals by the police.
"We are looking into the various aspects of the shooting. We will then see on what actions we should be taking on behalf of the family members," the youth wing's advisor S Vell Paari told Malaysiakini today."We are also pushing for the police to immediately start an inquest on the shooting incident. The police too must come clean on what actually transpired," he said.
He added that several lawyers had also expressed interest in acting for the family members - "either to hold a watching brief in an inquest or to file a suit at a later stage".
Vell Paari was commenting on the incident which happened on Feb 17 in a small town called Karangan, located some 15 kilometres from Kulim, Kedah.
'Police had no choice'
In that police shootout, six men believed to be involved in several armed-robbery cases in Kedah, Penang, Perak and Selangor were killed by a team from federal police headquarters in Bukit Aman.
The killed men were contract worker R Elangovan, 38; LS Santana, 34; contractor R Pannir, 28; crane driver S Vadivelan, 29; carpenter S Gurusamy, 50, and lorry attendant R Dilip Kumar, 20.
Kedah police chief Syed Ismail Syed Azizan said that two of them were wanted by the police for investigations into several crime cases.
Syed Ismail had said that the police team had identified themselves to the group outside a house in Kampung Kemunting but were shot at in the incident which happened at about 11pm.
"We had no choice but to retaliate or else the policemen could have been shot dead. The exchange of gunfire ultimately led to the death of the six men aged between 20 and 50," he added.
Holes in police version
The shootout caused an uproar among the public, politicians and NGOs. Several questions were raised, especially in the brutal manner the six were shot and killed.
Several family members of the victims have also denied allegations of their (victims') involvement in criminal activities.
"The MIC Youth wing had visited some of the families and we discovered that some of the victims were in the house in Kampung Kemunting for valid and legitimate reasons," said Vell Paari.
"Some of the victims were from elsewhere and had just stayed in the house while visiting Kulim. One man was a carpenter from Lumut and was to leave Kulim the next day," he added.
He also said that the police version of events "had some holes".
He also said that the current practice of dealing with police shootouts must be reviewed to make public inquests compulsory for every police shooting incident.
"How often do we see inquests being held for such extra-judicial killings?" he asked.
Independent members sought
Vell Paari said that a committee has been set up by the youth wing to play an effective role in handling such police incidents.
"But the purpose of the committee is not just to handle custodial deaths and police shootings. Instead it will be fire-fighting committee that will step in every time such an incident happens."
The committee will be looking into all other issues affecting the Indian community and will soon come out with a comprehensive report of proposals to solve these issues.
The membership of the 10-person committee consisted of five MIC youth wing members and five independent outsiders.
"We are looking for independent, non-party people to sit in the committee. We have identified two such persons. If anyone is interested, they can contact us," he said.
2 comments:
They deserved to die. One of the suspect Pannirselvam was identified my mum immediately after she saw his picture in Makkal Osai as the one who snatch her chain (Taali)in FRONT of our house. She was with my 3 years old son. He is still having nightmare about it. He might done to many people. Kulim people know about some of the people such as Elango. He have criminal records. The mastermind who lured youngster to his crime way and he deserved to die for that. PLEASE don't make them heroes they are scum of societies who attack old womans . My mum hands was broken and was in cast for 3 months.
I agree the 6 people are all human and its sadden that they were killed brutally however do not make a mistake of treating this case as politic as we have on Kugan's case. According to the news police were watching them for the past 2 years. I hope police will check every one of Ellango's family member especially Raja Pather in Kulim his uncle who owns the "Arasumathi Pather" in Bukit Mertajam. I do not want to my parents to be in trouble since we live close by but I want someone to definitely check on Ellango's extended family very clearly. I think I might have over heard something in a public place. Please I urge you pass along to the above mentioned people to the police. MIC people DO NOT fight for criminal. I understand that till proofen guilty there are not criminal. Mr. Karpal Singh do the Indian a favor and not help this people. They sure have all the robbed money hidden somewhere.
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