THEFT OF JET ENGINES: BUSINESSMAN ACQUITTED AGAIN

PUTRAJAYA – A businessman charged with disposing of stolen jet engines and money laundering was acquitted again, this time after his defence was called.

Session Court judge Aslam Zainuddin said the prosecution had failed to prove its case beyond reasonable doubt against K Rajandran Prasad.

Two years ago, Aslam acquitted Rajandran and former Royal Malaysian Air Force (RMAF) sergeant N Tharmendran after the prosecution failed to establish a prima facie case.

Following an appeal by the prosecution, the High Court in April this year ordered both to enter their defence.

The appeal against Tharmendran was struck out as the prosecution had been unable to serve notice of appeal on him.

S Preakas and Haijan Omar represented Rajandran, 46, while deputy public prosecutor Julia Ibrahim appeared for the prosecution.

Tharmendran was charged with conspiring with senior airman Mohamad Shukri Mohamad Yusop at the Subang RMAF Air Movement Section to steal two J8521-type engines from the Kuala Lumpur RMAF Material Processing Shed, MATRA 1 in Sungai Besi, Kuala Lumpur.

He allegedly committed the offence in December 2007.

Rajandran was accused of assisting in the disposal of the two F-5 jet engines at 49 Jalan TS 6/6 Taman Industri Subang on April 30, 2008.

Tharmendran was also charged with three counts of money laundering offences at Standard Chartered Bank Malaysia Berhad in Subang Jaya betwen March 25 and April 28, 2008.

Rajandran was also charged with five counts of money laundering, involving RM437,319.50, and the offence was allegedly committed at HSBC Bank Malaysia Berhad in Subang Jaya between April 18 and June 10, 2008.

Previous reports said one of the witnesses, Mohamad Shukri Mohd Yusof, admitted that he stole the J85-21 engines from the air force base in Sungai Besi.

He admitted that he stole the engines with Fauzi, another officer. Both reportedly wore uniforms on the day they committed the offence. Apparently, they wanted to avoid suspicion when they took the engines out from the base.

Shukri was not prosecuted.

The J85-21 engines, used on F5 fighter jets, were reported stolen on Dec 20, 2007 and Jan 1, 2008 at two RMAF facilities. They were sent to a place in Subang Jaya.

It was reported the engines were sold on the black market to a South American company.

The government bought the engines back  at RM303,570.

Then attorney-general Abdul Gani Patail was reported as saying in February 2010 that the air force jet engines were found in Uruguay.

Malaysia sought help from the Uruguayan government, under the Mutual Assistance in Criminal Matters Act, to get the jet engines back.

– FMT