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MALAYSIA: DUO SENTENCED TO DEATH OVER MURDER OF COLLEAGUE
August 3, 2016: Two men were given the death sentence by the
High Court in Johor Baru after being found guilty of murdering a colleague in
January 2013.
Judge Datuk Dr Sabirin Ja’afar made the decision after
finding the defence failed to raise any reasonable doubts in the prosecution’s
case.
“On the overall, the first and second accused were the last people
seen with the victim.
“Apart from that, the blood stains found on the carpet of a
car belonging to the father of the first accused matched the blood specimen of
the deceased.
“In fact, the cigarette butts found at the murder scene also
matched the DNA profile of the first accused, thus linking both accused with
the murder even though they denied being there,” he said in his
judgement.
Moments after the court announced the decision, both the
accused, S.P. Rajnath, 29, and B. Marvin Kumar, 30, were seen surrounded
by crying family members while the two accused appeared calm.
Rajnath and Marvin were charged with murdering M. Mathan,
19, with machetes by the roadside of Jemaluang Recreational Park at KM22 of
Jalan Mersing-Jemaluang-Kluang between 2am and 5am on January 4,
2013.
The murder victim was found in the park with 180 wounds on
the body by a policeman at 8.07am the same day.
According to the statement made by the accused in a police
report, the motive for the murder was because they were unhappy with the victim
for revealing their secrets to other colleagues.
Rajnath and
Marvin were charged under Section 302 of the Penal Code read together with
Section 34 of the same code which provides for the mandatory death sentence
upon conviction.
During the trial, 18 prosecution witnesses and three defence
witnesses were called to the stand including the parents of both accused, a
pathologist, two police cameramen and the policeman who lodged the report.
As soon as the judgement was pronounced today, both accused
through their counsel filed appeals to the Court of Appeal.
The
prosecution was conducted by deputy public prosecutor Nor Iffa Zarilla Abd
Rahman while the accused were represented by counsel A. Vasudevan and V. Rajagopal. (Sources: Bernama, 03/08/2016)
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