THE lawyer representing the families of three men killed in a police shooting in Durian Tunggal, Melaka on Nov 24 has come under fire by so-called righteous citizens for having urged the authorities to place state police chief Datuk Dzulkhairi Mukhtar on garden leave immediately pending an internal probe.
Lawyer Rajesh Nagarajan has made the call based on Dzulkhairi’s “completely false and illogical” claims that M. Jayashree, the wife of one of the victims, had an extensive criminal record.
Describing Dzulkhairi’s remarks as a form of “character assassination” against Jayashree, Rajesh clarified that she had only previously given police statements to assist with investigations and had never been convicted.
Last week, Dzulkhairi said Jayashree had 10 prior criminal records, including for armed robbery and attempted murder while her father also had a criminal past and is wanted in connection with a robbery case.
However, Rajesh was mocked as evident from a Facebook post of a Malaysiakini report with a number of PDRM (Royal Malaysia Police) supporters expressing doubt on his legal credibility while accusing him of over-stepping his authority or even defending/allowing criminals to go scot-free.
One smart Alec netizen even claimed that “criminals often operate in a gang with criminal organisations having good lawyers to bail out arrested members”.
“I suspect this loyar dude is one of them,” he snubbed while unnoticingly released a vital piece of unverified information.
“Some voice in the wind says police have a secret doctrine whereby criminals with multiple record of crimes who get caught but released frequently are to be ‘shot in a gunfight’ as that is the only justice that can be done at that point.
“I could be crazy to hear it from the wind but who knows if it’s true?”
One commenter who was obviously in the minority stepped forward to defend the dead trio whom family members claimed were unarmed yet were shot in cold blood a.k.a. “execution-style” killings with a shot on their forehead.
“Which written law says (police) must shoot n kill a culprit? If the convicts carry gun, surely can shoot for self-defence. Police officers are trained to shoot but shoot at the (suspects’) legs to reduce disaster. Why need to kill a person?”
Apart from Rajesh, political/social activist Arun Dorasamy was also mocked for echoing Rajesh that there was more “evidence” to contradict official statements on the deaths of three men allegedly at the hands of police.
The legal & advocacy unit head of Hindu NGO Agamam Ani Malaysia further dismissed claim that he is defending criminals but “merely upholding the rule of law, the Federal Constitution and defending everyone’s rights to be heard”.
“But the police have come out with a false narrative and on top of that they were bashing everyone on the social media (to defend their personnel),” argued Arun who was also present at yesterday’s (Dec 15) media conference.
Despite this, it is very surprising that self-proclaimed peace-loving Malaysians still stand firm behind the cops by believing that the dead trio are criminals based on their previous convictions instead of the circumstances surrounding their death. – Dec 16, 2025
Main image credit: Malay Mail
