WITNESS: SAMIRAH WAS HYSTERICAL
She tried to rush into burning room after door was broken down, court told
ASECURITY officer told the High Court here that Samirah Muzaffar, the first accused in the murder of Cradle Fund chief executive Nazrin Hassan, was “hysterical” when he arrived at her house in June last year.
Nepali national Raju Kumar Pandit, 31, who is head of security at Mutiara Homes in Petaling Jaya, said he was on patrol duty at 12pm on June 14, when he received a distress call from the security post that a fire had broken out in the neighbourhood.
“Upon arrival at the house, I saw the owner, a female, standing outside the porch with the gate opened.”
Raju Kumar, the fourth prosecution witness, said he later identified her as Samirah.
“She looked scared and was crying. She kept saying, ‘my husband is in the room’.”
Raju Kumar then rushed into the house and saw thick smoke
coming out from a room on the first floor. He said he had asked Samirah for the room key, but she said she did not have it.
“I tried to break the door open but failed. Samirah’s neighbour then came and handed me a steel rod, but I only managed to break the door knob.”
However, Raju Kumar said he finally managed to break the door open, and Samirah tried to rush into (the room).
“I managed to stop her as the room was on fire. It (the room) was filled with smoke… I could not go inside. At that time, I heard her scream, but I was not sure why.”
Samirah, 44, a former senior executive at the Intellectual Property Corporation of Malaysia (MyIPO) and two teenagers, aged 17 and 14, have been charged along with an Indonesian citizen, Eka Wahyu Lestari, who is still at large, with Nazrin’s murder.
They allegedly committed the offence at a house in Mutiara Homes, Mutiara Damansara, between 11.30pm on June 13 last year and 4am on June 14 last year.
They were charged under Section 302 of the Penal Code, read together with Section 34 of the same act, which provides the mandatory death sentence upon conviction.
The trial before judge Datuk Ab Karim Ab Rahman resumes next Friday.