Accused claims he was threatened by prison officers to admit killing Morais
KUALA LUMPUR: The sixth accused in the murder trial of deputy public prosecutor Datuk Anthony Kevin Morais told the High Court here that he and five other accused were threatened, so that they would admit to murdering Morais at the trial.
S. Nimalan, 25, claimed that the threat was made by several prison officers on April 10 at the Sungai Buloh Prison, as soon as he returned from attending the trial of the case at the High Court here.
"On April 10, I returned from attending the trial and had carried out an examination, three prison officials had asked me to pass motion. While in the toilet, one of them approached me and said that he had met with S. Ravi Chandran (the seventh accused) on several occasions to ask Ravi Chandran to admit to the case.
"The official said that he had discussed on the money to be received by all of them if they admitted to the case," he said during examination in chief by counsel V. Rajehgopal on the 13th day of the defence proceedings, today.
The fifth defence witness said that he subsequently lodged a police report on the matter on April 17 after Ravi Chandran, his uncle, asked him to lodge the report.
To a question by Rajehgopal whether Nimalan was involved in the murder case, the accused replied: "I did not commit the offence, Your Honour."
R. Dinishwaran, A. K. Thinesh Kumar, M. Vishwanath, Nimalan, Ravi Chandaran, and Colonel Dr R. Kunaseegaran, pleaded not guilty to the murder of Kevin Morais during the journey from Jalan Dutamas 1, Sentul to No.1 Jalan USJ 1/6D, Subang Jaya, between 7am and 8pm on September 4, 2015 under Section 302 of the Penal Code and read together with Section 34 of the same code, which carries the mandatory death sentence upon conviction.
At the proceedings today, five accused, Dinishwaran, 26, Thinesh Kumar, 25, Vishwanath; 28, Nimalan and Ravi Chandaran, 47, were represented by counsel Rajehgopal while Dr Kunaseegaran, 55, was represented by counsel Datuk N. Sivananthan and the prosecution was led by DPP Saiful Edris Zainuddin.
The trial before Justice Datuk Azman Abdullah continues tommorow. — Bernama