Accused: We were threatened, guards wanted us to admit killing Morais

The sixth accused in the murder trial of deputy public prosecutor Anthony Kevin Morais told the Kuala Lumpur High Court that he and five other accused were threatened so that they would admit to the murder at the trial.

S Nimalan, 25, claimed that the threat was made by several prison officers on April 10 at the Sungai Buloh Prison, as soon as he returned from attending the trial.

“On April 10, I returned from attending the trial and had carried out an examination, three prison officials had asked me to pass motion.

“While in the toilet, one of them approached me and said that he had met with S Ravi Chandran (the seventh accused) on several occasions to ask him to admit to the case.

“The officer said that he had discussed on the money to be received by all of them if they admitted to the case,” he said during examination in chief by counsel V Rajehgopal on the 13th day of the defence proceedings.

The fifth defence witness said that he subsequently lodged a police report on the matter on April 17 after Ravi Chandran, who was his uncle, had asked him to do so.

To a question by Rajehgopal whether Nimalan was involved in the murder case, the accused replied: “I did not commit the offence, Your Honour.”

R Dinishwaran, AK Thinesh Kumar, M Vishwanath, Nimalan, Ravi Chandaran, and army doctor Dr R Kunaseegaran, pleaded not guilty to the murder of Kevin Morais during the journey from Jalan Dutamas 1, Sentul to No.1 Jalan USJ 1/6D, Subang Jaya, between 7am and 8pm on Sept 4, 2015.

They are charged under Section 302 of the Penal Code, read together with Section 34, which carries the mandatory death sentence upon conviction.

At the proceedings today, five accused – Dinishwaran, Thinesh Kumar, Vishwanath, Nimalan and Ravi Chandaran – were represented by counsel Rajehgopal, while Kunaseegaran was represented by counsel N Sivananthan.

The prosecution was led by deputy public prosecutor Saiful Edris Zainuddin.

The trial before Justice Azman Abdullah continues tomorrow.

- Bernama