‘Lawyers asked me to admit to murder’
KUALA LUMPUR: It wasn’t just prison officers, but lawyers also had asked an accused in the murder trial of deputy public prosecutor Datuk Anthony Kevin Morais to plead guilty to the charge.
“The lawyers came to meet me. There were no threats made, but they urged me to admit (to the murder),” said S. Nimalan, 25, the sixth accused in the case, during cross examination by counsel Datuk N. Sivananthan during the trial, which entered its 14th day at the High Court here yesterday.
Without mentioning the names, Nimalan, who is the fifth defence witness, said the incident occurred in 2015.
At that time, he had not appointed any lawyer to represent him in the case.
To Sivananthan’s question on whether he had previously pleaded guilty, the accused said that he did not, including to the alternative charge that was offered by the prosecution in 2016.
He added that he did not accept the alternative charge as he had consulted a lawyer, whom he later appointed. Nimalan said the decision was made after he consulted his lawyer.
“Jay (G. Gunasekaran, the former second accused who is now free after completing his sentence) had told me not to admit to the offence because I did nothing (wrong),” he said.
On March 28, 2016, Nimalan, a former college student, was offered an alternative charge of helping to hide the body and destroying a vehicle with the number plate WA 6264 Q with the intention of preventing six other accused from taking legal action.
The charge was lodged under Section 201 of the Penal Code, which provided a maximum jail term of seven years and a fine, upon conviction.
Gunasekaran was offered the same alternative charge and pleaded guilty to it. He was sentenced to two years’ jail from the date he was arrested on Sept 15, 2015. R. Dinishwaran, A.K Thinesh Kumar, M. Vishwanath; Nimalan, S. Ravi Chandaran, and army Colonel Dr R. Kunaseegaran, pleaded not guilty to the charge of killing Morais on the way from Jalan Dutamas 1, Sentul to 1 Jalan USJ 1 / 6D, Subang Jaya, between 7am and 8pm, on Sept 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 yesterday’s proceedings, the five accused — Dinishwaran, 26, Thinesh Kumar, 25, Vishwanath; Nimalan and Ravi Chandaran, 47 — were represented by lawyer V. Rajehgopal, while Dr Kunaseegaran, 55, was represented by lawyer Sivananthan. The prosecution was led by deputy public prosecutor Saiful Edris Zainuddin.