Man shot while praying in temple

Man shot while praying in temple

MALAYSIA - A prayer ceremony at a temple in Johor Baru turned violent when a man was fatally shot in front of his family.

Mr K. Jaganathan’s family was performing special prayers at the temple last Friday evening when two men wearing helmets approached them.

One of them took out a gun from his shoes and fired several shots at the 37-year-old victim, reported Malaysia’s The Star.

Mr Jaganathan is believed to be a member of Gang 21, a Chinese-dominated triad involved in prostitution, drug-pushing and illegal gaming.

His mother M. Letchumi, 63, wailed at her son’s home in Taman Mutiara Rini on Saturday.

“What wrong did he do? Why did they shoot my son mercilessly?”

Madam Letchumi said the family was praying inside the temple at around 7.30pm when she saw the gunman firing a shot into her son’s chest.

Fell

“He then fell to my legs while screaming ‘amma’ (mother). Before I could pick him up, he was shot on the shoulder,” she said, adding that she could not forget how her son screamed for help and cried in pain.

“I was holding him in my arms when the shooter shot him again on his back.

“Whoever did this to my son is heart-less. We were in a temple with other devotees. And he was killed in front of his three young children.”

The victim’s elder brother, who did not want to be named, said that Mr Jaganathan was no longer involved with any gang.

“It was all in the past. He had repented and left the gang after he got married as he had his family to take care of,” he said.

In recent years, he said, Mr Jaganathan had attended to his logistics and cattle businesses.

Johor police chief Mohd Mokhtar Mohd Shariff said police have picked up a man in his 30s to assist with the investigations.

“The victim had eight past criminal records and was once detained under the Emergency Ordinance,” he said.


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