Another teacher ordered to enter defence over exam leak

PUTRAJAYA: Another teacher has been ordered by the Court of Appeal to enter his defence for alleged unlawful possession of a question paper for the 2014 Ujian Pencapaian Sekolah Rendah (UPSR) examination.

A three-man bench chaired by Justice Mohd Zawawi Salleh said there was merit in allowing the government’s appeal to set aside the acquittal of P Murugan.

“The trial judge had erred in discharging the respondent (Murugan) from entering defence,” he said.

The case will be mentioned before a new Sessions Court judge in Seremban on Oct 24.

On Sept 30 last year, High Court judge Kamaludin Md Said ruled that the decision made by the Sessions Court on April 16, 2015, in acquitting Murugan, 38, was correct based on law and facts.

Murugan, of Sekolah Jenis Kebangsaan Tamil Ladang Lenggeng, Nilai, was charged with possession of the Mathematics 015/1 question paper in a smartphone between Sept 8 and 17, 2014, at a house in Taman Sri Mawar, Mantin, Negeri Sembilan.

The charge, under the Official Secrets Act 1972, provides for a jail term of one to seven years upon conviction.

Last week, the Court of Appeal also ordered another primary school teacher, Subbarau Kamalanathan, to enter his defence on five charges of having classified UPSR exam papers in his mobile phone.

On Sept 6 last year, High Court judge Siti Mariam Othman had thrown out the government’s appeal against Subbarau.

Subbarau was slapped with five charges involving Mathematics Papers 1 and 2, Bahasa Tamil (comprehension), Bahasa Tamil (writing) and Science.

He allegedly committed the offences via a Samsung Galaxy Note 2 smartphone.

UPSR examination paper leaks forced 473,175 pupils from 8,384 schools nationwide to re-sit their Science and English papers on Sept 30 last year.

Meanwhile, lawyer M Kulasegaran, who appeared with Haresh Mahadevan and Ramzani Idris, today said there were three other similar cases pending in the High Court in Taiping and one in Kemaman Sessions Court.

Haresh said he would obtain instruction from Murugan whether to subpoena former Education Minister Muhyiddin Yassin to appear as defence witness. -FMT