A Malaysian man and four foreigners - two of them women - pleaded not guilty in separate Johor Bahru Sessions Courts today to trafficking six women of Indian nationality for sexual exploitation.
Bala Muraly Supermaniam, 46, a manager of a plastic manufacturing factory, and the four other accused - Sahayaraj Raju, 41, Thiruneelakandan Kasinathan, 39, Nithyarettamary Yesurajan, 39, and Karpagavali Jeyakumar, 24 - made the plea after the charge was read out to them in Tamil by a court interpreter.
The charges were read out to them in separate proceedings before judges Ahmad Kamal Arifin Ismail and Fatimah Zahari.
They were all charged under Section 12 of the Anti-Trafficking in Persons and Anti-Smuggling of Migrants Act 2007, read together with Section 34 of the same law, which provides a prison sentence not exceeding 20 years and a fine.
Bala was charged with four counts, while Sahayaraj and Nithyarettamary each faced three charges, Thiruneelakandan (two charges) and Karpagavali (one charge).
They were charged with committing the offences between Dec 24 last year and April 24 this year at D'Secret Garden Condominium and Tune Hotel Danga Bay.
Bala, who was charged with two counts before Kamal, was allowed bail of RM8,000 with a local surety for each charge and also ordered to surrender his passport to the court and report himself once a month at the Tampoi police station, Johor Bahru.
He was also charged with two similar counts before Fatimah and was allowed bail of RM8,000 with a local surety for each charge.
Fatimah also allowed Sahayaraj, who was charged before her with one count, bail of RM30,000 with a local surety and also to surrender his passport to the court and report at the nearest police station every two weeks.
No bail was allowed for the other three accused.
Charge of overstaying
Meanwhile, Nithyarettamary and Karpagavali were also charged before magistrate Hidayatul Syuhada Shamsudin with overstaying in the country. They pleaded guilty to the charge.
The two women were charged with committing the offence at Block B Apartment Country Garden, Jalan Persiaran Alife Harmoni Utama.
Karpagavali was sentenced to five months in prison from the date of arrest on April 19, while Nithyarettamary was fined RM10,000, in default 12 months in prison.
Lawyer Mohd Fazaly Ali Mohd Ghazaly represented Bala and Karpagavali, while the three other accused were unrepresented.
- Bernama
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