KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 3 — Lawyers acting for the families of three men killed during a police operation in Durian Tunggal have urged authorities to take immediate action against the officers involved, following the reclassification of the case as murder.

According to a report in New Straits Times, lawyer Rajesh Nagarajan said the officers should be arrested and remanded.

“Not a single policeman involved in the shooting has been arrested. This is contrary to the police Standard Operating Procedure. Why the double standards?” he reportedly said at a press conference before handing over a memorandum addressed to the Inspector-General of Police at Bukit Aman today. 

He reportedly criticised a police statement saying the officers involved were no longer on active duty, arguing that this did not amount to a formal suspension, and called for the suspension of Melaka police chief Datuk Dzulkhairi Mukhtar pending the investigation.

The memorandum reportedly also called for separate investigations into alleged interference with the probe, as well as possible evidence tampering and false reporting, citing discrepancies between official accounts and material obtained by the legal team.

The three men — G. Logeswaran, 29, M. Puspanathan, 21, and M. Poovaneswaran, 24 — were shot dead at an oil palm plantation on November 24.

Bukit Aman Criminal Investigation Department later set up a special task force to investigate the shooting, taking over the probe from the Melaka police contingent.

On December 16, the Attorney-General’s Chambers said the case was reclassified under Section 302, which relates to the offence of murder, following briefings and recommendations from the police.

The AGC said, however, that the reclassification did not, at this stage, mean that a criminal offence had been established.