News

Home > News > Nation

Published: Thursday May 21, 2009 MYT 3:18:00 PM
Updated: Thursday May 21, 2009 MYT 6:49:57 PM

Five charged for death of Tesco Extra operations manager

By DERRICK VINESH

BUKIT MERTAJAM: Five youths pleaded not guilty at a magistrates court here to a charge of firing shots which killed a hypermarket employee and injured two others while robbing a jewellery store in March.

The five, aged between 26 and 31, were charged with committing the offence in front of Poh Kong Jewellery Store in Tesco Extra Seberang Jaya in Central Seberang Prai on March 18.

They are alleged to have committed the offence with three others – two who have since been shot dead with another still at large.

In the incident, the accused are alleged to have fired shots which caused the death of one S. Sathiasillan, 28, and injured Izad Hafiz Mohamad Saad, 27, and N. Ilengohvan, 26.

Sathiasillan was the hypermarket’s operations manager, Ilengohvan the retail manager and Izad the jewellery shop’s security guard.

Defence counsel R.S.N. Rayer and Jagdeep Singh Deo represented two of the accused – R. Jeganathan, 29, from Bedong, Kedah, and Ram Tamalarasan, 30, from Sungai Petani, Kedah.

The other three – V. Kumar Vello, 27, from Tampoi, Johor; D. Selvam, 31, and A. Jeeva, 26, both from Sungai Petani, were not represented.

They were jointly charged under Section 3 of the Firearms (Increased Penalties) Act 1971, read together with Section 34 of the Penal Code, which carries the mandatory death sentence upon conviction.

The court set July 23 for mention.