Accused in DPP murder trial says testimony may be his last

KUALA LUMPUR: The seventh accused in the murder of deputy public prosecutor Datuk Anthony Kevin Morais shocked the High Court hearing the case yesterday when he told the court that his defence testimony might be his last as he could be dead after that.

S. Ravi Chandaran, 47, who was in the dock, told the court this after taking his oath before judge Datuk Azman Abdullah to testify as the sixth and last defence witness in the murder trial.

“I want to tell Your Honour, I don't know whether I will still be alive or dead after giving this testimony, it might be my last,” he said in Tamil, which was then translated by a court interpreter.

Azman, however, then told Ravi Chandran to continue with his testimony after telling him to let his lawyer know his problems .

Ravi Chandaran complied and proceeded to testify. Today is the 15th day of the murder trial.

To a question by lawyer V.Rajehgopal during examinationin-chief, Ravi Chandaran told the court that he went to a condominium at Jalan Dutamas here on Sept 3, 2015, to accompany a friend, G.Gunasekaran, also known as “Jay” who he had known for 23 years.

He said Jay told him that a “client” at the condominium had borrowed money from him and he wanted to collect the debt.

“I asked Jay why so early as it was 6 am (then). Jay said the client would leave the condominium early in the morning,” said Ravi Chandran and told the court that he had this conversation with Jay while they were at Restoran Syed Bistro, Petaling Jaya.

He said there were also four other men at the restaurant, namely his nephew S.Nimalan, R. Dinishwaran, A.K Thinesh Kumar and M. Vishwanath, all of them also the accused in the case.