In the latest case, the three – Puspanathan Murulitharan, 21; Poonesvaran Tiagarajan, 24; and Logeswaran Georgie, 29 – were killed on November 24 during a police operation in Durian Tunggal, a small township in Melaka’s central district.
Melaka police said the trio were suspected members of an armed-robbery group and had ambushed officers attempting to apprehend them at an oil palm plantation around 4am, slashing a police corporal on the arm allegedly with machetes.
Police said the men were linked to a robbery gang suspected of about 20 break-ins, causing 1.3 million ringgit (US$312,000) in losses.
In a press conference, state police chief Dzulkhairi Mukhtar said officers were forced to fire in self-defence.
But the families dispute the explanation. At a press conference on Wednesday in Kuala Lumpur, the wife of Logeswaran, who identified herself only as Jayashree, said she had recorded the final minutes of her phone conversation with him during the incident.
