Remembering the ‘Bentong Kali’ days

Malaysians will never forget the name ‘Bentong Kali‘. For all the gangland-style execution and drive-by shootings, P Kalimuthu earned a spot in the annals of Malaysian criminal history.

Kalimuthu committed 17 murders; some were gunned down in broad daylight between 1990 and 1993.

In the early 1990s, a mere mention of his name sent shivers down the spine of many of his adversaries in Klang Valley, especially in the Jalan Klang Lama.

“The first time I came across Bentong Kali’s name was when a bouncer was shot at the Caesar’s Club, SS 2, Petaling Jaya,” said former news editor Devid Rajah.

According to Devid, who covered the incident as a crime reporter, Kalimuthu shot the bouncer five times. However, the bouncer escaped but was left paralysed.

Many of Kalimuthu’s victims were said to be his ‘business enemies’, primarily centred on drug production and trafficking. However, there were also countless innocent victims.

Former Police CID officer Michael Sundram, who was based in Petaling Jaya during Kalimuthu’s heyday, said that, in his opinion, Kali was ruthless because he never had any aim.

“He targetted many innocent people, and that cannot be accepted,” he retorted.

Bentong Kali’s late night murders

On January 24th, 1993, a gunman walked into the Tai Kah Seng Restaurant at Old Klang Road and pulled the trigger, killing V Letchumanan. Two others were seriously injured.

The police identified the killer as an individual named Kali or Bentong Kali or Sam.

Two weeks later, an unemployed man known as M Athinathan was gunned down near his house at Jalan Klang Lama. 

M Athinathan was previously detained in Pulau Jerejak in 1986 for allegedly being involved in an armed robbery. Kalimuthu was serving his two years of detainment in the same place in 1986. 

Bentong Kali and his murderous rage

Kalimuthu was said to be always accompanied by his loyal lieutenant Gunalan, also known as Billiard, who was an ex-convict in his early 20s.

Their next crime was a gruesome murder in Kuala Garing, Rawang.

Kalimuthu, flanked by Gunalan and his gang members, ambushed a restaurant with parang, knives and iron rods, and they started attacking the patrons in the restaurant.

“If he had revenge and killed a gangster or his enemy, that is different, but he killed anyone and everyone that comes in his way, for example, people having dinner in a restaurant,” said Michael Sundram.

Chanca Singh, aged 46 and Tee Heh Wah, aged 48, were murdered in the attack.

Bentong Kali hunts down the traitors

Kalimuthu’s former associates said he is ruthless and vengeful and never stopped hunting down former gang members who betrayed him. He also randomly threatens normal people.

“I seriously had fear because we knew that Kalimuthu had threatened a Tamil newspaper reporter for publishing stories of him,” said Devid, who started as a crime reporter in the 1990s.

Devid also said that through police briefings, he learned that Kalimuthu carried more than one weapon at any point in time and would not hesitate to shoot.

In one incident in Jalan Raja Laut, Kalimuthu and Gunalan went looking for their fiercest rival, Mohanan Pillai.

However, they ended up gunning down two innocent victims, S Balarajah and Balwant Singh, who were having dinner in a restaurant in Jalan Raja Laut.

By mid-1993, he was highly wanted by both Kuala Lumpur and Selangor police, who had announced RM 100,000 bounty for his head.

Kalimuthu went into hiding, constantly moving and extremely cautious of his surroundings. He moved to Flat Taming Jaya in Balakong and continued his drug trafficking activities until he had a tiff with a group of men.

According to a news report, Kalimuthu was confronted by one of the residents for urinating near his flat. K Muthu, aged 24, was shot in the face from a point-blank range by Kalimuthu. Following this incident, police raided the flat and found a drug processing lab, but Kalimuthu escaped.

“After the shooting, Kalimuthu hurriedly left the scene, leaving behind his passport in the flat where he was living. Through that passport photo, police managed to identify and confirm that Kalimuthu has changed his look,” said Suganthi Suparmaniam, who wrote the book titled The Story of Bentong Kali: Crime and Society in 90s Kuala Lumpur.

Suganthi, through extensive interviews with Kalimuthu’s former associate, managed to weave a timeline of Kalimuthu’s movement after the Taming Jaya shooting incident.

According to Suganthi, Kalimuthu was bitter and agitated after losing the drug laboratory he had been operating in the Taming Jaya flat. That anger took him back to the flats a few weeks later, as he was bent on killing K. Muthu’s friends.

Kalimuthu turned up uninvited at a birthday party in the Flat Taming Jaya with Gunalan. They both opened fire at the crowd, killing four and injuring two others.

“Innocent people were shot. It was a children’s birthday party. This is wrong, really wrong,” said Michael Sundram.

Police stepping it up

The police finally lost their patience and launched Ops Buncit after Kalimuthu shot a police informant in Jinjang, Selayang.

“The Taming Jaya incident and the shooting of the police informant was the last straw that pushed the police special branch’s involvement to nab Kalimuthu,” said S. Sritharan, a former special branch officer.

More than 100 police personnel were tasked to hunt him down. Kalimuthu began taunting the police, calling then-Police CID Chief, the late Tan Sri Zaman Khan, and challenging them to find him.

“If you can call and threaten the police CID director, what kind of guts and arrogance he must have had,” questioned Devid.

By June 25th, 1993, police managed to track Kalimuthu down to a house in Medan Damansara.

“We were on standby and had a clear instruction to not engage Kalimuthu and his accomplice,” said Michael, adding that they saw them leave the house.

On June 29th, 1993, at about 5.00 am, Kalimuthu went out of the house looking for one of his rivals to settle an old score. However, he did not find him.

Instead, Kalimuthu shot a stall owner, Abdul Samad Abdul Hamid, aged 65, killing him on the spot. That was his last murder.

Final showdown

Police detectives trailed Kalimuthu back to Medan Damansara. He was accompanied by Gunalan and another of his henchmen, T. Gunasegaran.

Within the next hour, a large police team, including snipers and federal Special Action Unit members, took positions around Kalimuthu’s hideout.

“When we saw the Kalimuthu’s car coming back to the house, we knew that was the end of them,” said Michael.

A shootout ensued. Kalimuthu was killed in a hail of bullets when he tried to escape by climbing through the house’s roof.

“At around seven in the morning, I received a call from one of my contacts in Bukit Aman saying that Kalimuthu has been shot,” said Devid.

Many of Kalimuthu’s associates were arrested and sentenced for an extended period.

Today, almost 30 years later, the memories of Kalimuthu’s atrocities remain. The family of the innocent victims still lives in grief.

Read more on Bentong Kali and his crime in the book The Story of Bentong Kali: Crime and Society in 90s Kuala Lumpur Suganthi Suparmaniam. The book can be bought at Rainforest Books.

Watch the Bentong Kali days episode on ‘Antha Naal’ Documentary Series on Astro on Demand.