Club Fight Turned Murder, 3 Men Found Not Guilty
Cheang Sue Lyn
JOHOR BAHRU:
It was mostly smiles in the High Court here today as three men were acquitted and discharged of murder.
Thanes A/L Kerisnan, Karunagaran A/L Manoharan and Saravanan A/L Vellayutham were charged jointly for murder under Section 302 of the Penal Code which carries the mandatory death sentence.
The victim was 34-year-old Kuppusamy A/L Ramasamy.
YA Dr Shahnaz Binti Sulaiman presided over the case.
According to the Prosecution, on January 15, 2017, the trio and 12 others got into a row with the victim at the Jolly Pub Club & Bar. The fight took to the streets near a Shell petrol station in Taman Tampoi Utama.
The victim was hit with a golf club and he was left lying at the roadside.
He was found dead the next day. The police released a wanted list of 15 suspects following their investigation. A few days later, the trio surrendered themselves to the police and was eventually tried in the Johor Bahru High Court.
20 witnesses were called to prove the Prosecution’s case.
Among those that took the stand were the victim’s girlfriend, Raghini A/P Mani, the victim’s sister, Rajeswari A/P Kuppusamy and the bouncer of the nightclub Helmie Bin Jamal.
At the end of Prosecution Stage, the judge made a ruling that aprima facie case was established by the Prosecution, and had called for the Accused persons to enter their defence.
At that juncture the Accused persons decided to bring in assistance of MessrsGeethan Ram to take over conduct of the case.
All three accused gave sworn testimony.
YA Dr Shahnaz found that the defence had successfully shown reasonable doubt in the Prosecution’s case and proceeded to acquit all the Accused persons.
The gallery was packed with their friends and family who were visibly pleased at the judgment.