Lawyers flag missing details in Durian Tunggal autopsy reports

PETALING JAYA: Lawyers representing the families of the three men shot dead by police in Durian Tunggal, Melaka, last November have questioned the omission of key details in the autopsy reports.

Rajesh Nagarajan and Sachpreetraj Singh said the reports do not contain autopsy photographs, wound diagrams, forensic reconstruction, or an analysis on the sequence of shots.

Additionally, the reports do not correlate with the crime scene, and lack ballistic evidence or bloodstain pattern analysis.

“These omissions are extraordinary and fall far short of the Minnesota Protocol on the Investigation of Potentially Unlawful Death (2016) – the international benchmark for deaths at the hands of law enforcement,” said the duo in a joint statement.

“The reports also assert that the injuries are consistent with close-range discharge. This alone demands independent forensic scrutiny.”

Both Rajesh and Sachpreetraj said these reports revealed findings which backed their concerns that the three dead men were subjected to an execution-style killing, rather than being shot in genuine and lawful self-defence.

They highlighted two key findings: all three deceased sustained close-range gunshot wounds, and the bullet trajectories were predominantly downward.

They explained that downward bullet trajectories at close range raised questions about the relative positions of the shooters and the deceased, including whether the deceased were kneeling, prone, or incapacitated when the fatal shots were fired.

Independent probe needed

The lawyers stated that no police officer allegedly involved in the shooting had been arrested or charged, and reiterated their demands that these personnel be investigated under the Penal Code for murder and charged if the evidence discloses a prima facie case.

Additionally, the lawyers also demanded that an independent body investigate the shooting as they said the police could not investigate themselves.

“All forensic materials – post-mortem photographs, post-mortem scans, ballistic reports, photographs of the scene, body-worn camera and CCTV footage, and radio communications – must be preserved under independent custody and disclosed to the investigative authorities and to counsel for the families,” added Rajesh and Sachpreetraj.

In the incident on Nov 24 last year, three men aged between 24 and 29 were shot dead after one of them allegedly attacked a police officer with a parang.

Investigations were opened under Section 307 of the Penal Code for attempted murder. However, in December, the Attorney-General’s Chambers (AGC) directed that the case be reclassified as murder.

Last week, home minister Saifuddin Nasution Ismail said in a parliamentary reply that the AGC is still reviewing the investigation papers on the shooting case, more than a month after they were resubmitted for the fourth time.