Watchdog demands response to damning video by father of deceased

Citizens Against Enforced Disappearances (Caged) has demanded that the police respond to a damning video made by the father of a pair of siblings who were involved in the deadly shooting on Sept 14.

In a statement today, Caged said that the father, known only as Govindasamy, had alleged in the video that the killing of his son, Thavaselvan and the disappearance of his daughter, Moganambal, was related to the disappearance of A Sivaguru in 2016.

Sivaguru had disappeared in Jeli, Kelantan under mysterious circumstances and the police have revealed little about the matter since.

Among others, Govindasamy had alleged that Thavaselvan and two others - Mahendran and Janarthanan - were all assassinated with Sivaguru's involvement.

In view of this, Caged urged the police to question Govindasamy.

"We call upon the IGP to question Govindasamy and vigorously pursue all leads to confirm or deny the public's suspicions that there are police for hire to conduct abductions and murders in Malaysia.

"The badly tarnished name of the police must be recovered," said Caged, which was formed as a pressure group on the alleged enforced disappearance of pastor Raymond Koh and trader Amri Che Mat.

Police had claimed that Thavaselvan, S Maghendran and V Janarthanan were killed in a shootout after a highspeed car chase. They also claim that the trio were wanted criminals.

However, the family has disputed this claim. Instead, they are claiming that the trio, along with Magonambal, went out for dinner and never came back.

They also dispute police claims that Janarthanan was a wanted criminal because he had not set foot in Malaysia for six years, and was only visiting the country with his wife Moganambal and family.

The police have promised an inquest into the deaths of the trio.