SEREMBAN: Four individuals, including two juveniles, claimed trial at the Sessions Court here to charges of gang-raping a girl who was only two months away from turning 13.
The suspects pleaded not guilty after the charges were read out before Judge Datin Surita Budin on Thursday (Feb 23).
In the first case, Neo Jing Cong, 23; Wong Chee Keong, 19; and a 17-year-old juvenile were charged with gang-raping the girl at around 1.30am at a hotel room in Bahau on Jan 24 this year.
In the second case, Wong, the 17-year-old juvenile and another 14-year-old suspect, allegedly gang-raped the girl at another hotel in Bahau at around 2pm on the same day.
The four were charged under Section 375B of the Penal Code which provides for imprisonment of between 10 and 30 years upon conviction.
Deputy Public Prosecutor Goh Hsiao Tung then asked the court not to allow bail as the offence was a serious one involving a young girl.
She also urged the court to impose additional conditions if it were to allow bail.
Goh also asked for another mention date as the prosecution has yet to, among others, obtain the victim's medical reports.
Datuk PM Nagarajan, who represented Neo, Wong and the 14-year-old, asked the court to allow bail, adding that the amount should be low as all the accused earned little.
He said Neo was a site supervisor who earned around RM1,500, Wong was an assistant at a warehouse with a salary of about RM1,200 while the 14-year-old juvenile, a school dropout, would be bailed by his father who was present in court.
Datuk Abu Bakar Isa Ramat, who appeared for the 17-year-old, also asked for a low bail as the accused, who stopped schooling in Standard Six, only worked as a scrap metal collector earning about RM1,000 a month.
She said the accused would be bailed by his older sister who earned about RM2,000 a month.
Judge Surita then set bail at RM7,000 for each of the accused with one surety and ordered them to stay away from the victim.
They were also told to report at the nearest police station every month.
She then fixed March 30 to enable parties to submit documents.
