IPOH: Two friends escaped the noose for murdering a man three years ago after they pleaded guilty to an alternative charge on Tuesday (May 9).
The accused, Muhammad Iman Divaharan Abdullah, 44, and GS Suria Sekaran, 27, pleaded guilty to an alternative charge of unintentionally causing the death of Ling Hua Chai, 47, and were sentenced to five years in jail.
The alternative charge was read to them in Tamil before High Court judge Judicial Commissioner Bhupindar Singh Gurcharan Singh Preet at the Ipoh High Court here Tuesday.
Under Section 304(b) of the Penal Code, they were charged with causing death without intention, in which an offender can be jailed for up to 10 years, fined, or both, upon conviction.
For the alternative charge, both of the accused were charged with unintentionally causing the death of Ling at Huang Cheng KTV, Pusar Bandar Manjung in Manjung between 11.30pm on March 7, 2020, and 12.20am on March 8, 2020.
They were first charged under Section 302 of the Penal Code for murder, read together with Section 34 of the same legislation.
According to the fact of the case, Muhammad Iman, who was driving a car, had intentionally blocked the parking entrance located in front of the karaoke centre.
He then told Suria Sekaran and another individual that his car was broken and asked them to monitor the car while he went to a nearby restaurant on March 7, 2020.
Shortly after, Ling, together with three of his friends, went to the location and tried to break Muhammad Iman’s car window as it was blocking the parking entrance.
Suria Sekaran, who saw the incident, told Muhammad Iman and then a fight broke out between them.
During the fight, Suria Sekaran used a knife to incise a wound to the left forearm of Ling, which later became the cause of his death.
He was brought to Hospital Seri Manjung at 8.05am on March 8, 2020, and pronounced dead at 12.43pm on the same day.
Lawyer Charan Singh Kartar Singh who represented Muhammad Iman requested the minimum sentence for his client due to his involvement in the case.
“My client was 42 years old when the offence was committed. He worked as a security officer earning around RM5,000 a month.
"He is the sole breadwinner of his family and takes care of his wife who is not working, four schooling children, and his sick mother.
“He had saved the court time by pleading guilty to the alternative charge and based on the case facts, my client had minimal involvement in it. Therefore, I would like to request for his punishment to be based on his involvement,” he said.
Meanwhile, lawyer Tun Mohd Ammar Aziz, who represented Suria Sekaran, said his client was sorry to the court and the deceased’s family.
“His education level was only until he was 15 years old and he was raised by a single mother. Since then, he was been working tirelessly to help his mother and take care of his five other siblings.
“He was working as a parking attendant earning RM1,000 a month while volunteering at a nearby temple.
"Prior to the offence, my client had no criminal record and he had pleaded guilty to the alternative charge,” he said.
Tun Mohd Ammar also request the court to consider his client’s punishment based on the case facts.
“The deceased was only sent to the hospital eight hours after the crime was committed. I hope the court would consider minimising the offence committed and that the punishment starts from the day my client was arrested, which was on March 8, 2020,” he said.
Deputy Public Prosecutor Khazrin Haffiz Khalil said although the accused have pleaded guilty under Section 304(b) of the Penal Code, it doesn’t give an automatic right to a lower sentence.
“We hope the court would consider heavier sentences since the accused’s action has caused a man’s death,” he said.
DPP Nasrul Hadi Abdul Ghani was also prosecuted.
