Directors claim trial to river pollution
Company heads plead not guilty to 45 charges over Sungai Kim Kim disaster
JOHOR BARU: A used tyre-processing company and two of its directors pleaded not guilty at the Sessions Court here to a total of 45 charges for polluting Sungai Kim Kim in Pasir Gudang.
Singaporean Wang Jing Chao, 34, his Malaysian business partner Yap Yoke Liang and their company, P Tech Resources Sdn Bhd, have been charged with 15 counts each.
According to the charges, Wang and Yap failed to manage the company’s scheduled waste, under Rule 3(1) of the Environment Quality Regulations (Scheduled Wastes) 2005, which itself is under the Environment Quality Act 1974.
They were alleged to have committed the offences on March 12 at around 12.25pm at P Tech Resources Sdn Bhd, located at Jalan Nibong 2 in the Tanjung Langsat Industrial Area.
The two were also alleged to have caused air pollution for failing to carry out regular monitoring under the same rule at the same location, time and date.
Wang and Yap could be fined a maximum of RM100,000, jail up to two years or both upon conviction.
The two also pleaded not guilty on the company’s behalf.
Sessions court judge Jailani Rahman set bail at RM15,000 for each of the accused involved in the scheduled waste charges and another RM3,000 for air pollution.
The mention date has been fixed for April 30.
Jailani also ordered Wang to have a Malaysian surety and to report to the Pasir Gudang police station on the first day of every month until the case is over.
Deputy Public Prosecutor Muhammad Asyraf Md Kamal and Farra Nor Azura Jumuddin prosecuted while lawyer G. Subramaniam Nair represented the accused.
On Sunday (March 24), Wang and Yap, together with the company’s lorry driver N. Maridass, were also charged for allegedly dumping chemical waste into Sungai Kim Kim, an offence that falls under Section 34B(1)(a) of the Environment Quality Act 1974.
Yap and Wang were also charged under Section 42 of the same Act.
If convicted, they can be jailed up to five years and fined a maximum of RM500,000.
The Sessions Court slapped an RM100,000 bail on Maridass and RM250,000 on Yap in one surety each.
Yap was ordered to hand over his passport while Wang was not offered bail, as he is a foreigner.