A-G drop charges on 31 Hindrafs

31 demonstrators acquitted and discharged of attempted murder

The Sessions Court here today acquitted and discharged 31 people charged with attempting to murder a police officer during an illegal assembly organised by the Hindu Rights Action Force (Hindraf) in front of the Sri Subramaniam temple in Batu Caves, near here, on Nov 25.


Judge Nursinah Adzmi made the decision after allowing the application by Attorney-General Tan Sri Abdul Gani Patail to withdraw the charges against them.

Prior to this, all the 31 claimed trial to a number of charges, including attempted murder under Section 149/307 of the Penal Code.

However, out of the 31, only six including five college students were acquitted and discharged of all charges while the rest are still facing other charges.

The six are L. Thiyagarajan, 31, K. Thinagaranpillay, 23, A. Vasantarao, 19, S. Ramesh Kumar, 22, S. Mugilan Dever, 20, and G. Suman, 20.

Of the remaining 25, 16 changed their plea to guilty to the charge of causing damage to seven cars and two gates of the temple under Section 149/440 of the Penal Code.

Eight of the 25 also changed their plea to being in an illegal assembly under Section 27 (5) (a) of the Police Act 1967 while another accused, to an alternative charge of displaying criminal force to put fear into the police officers during the illegal assembly.

Nursinah also allowed them to be freed on bail of RM500 each in one surety.

It was clear under Criminal Law theory that the charge of attempted murder could not be sustained and all of them would be free. However, if the full trial is to take place, it may take several years with several postponements, as was the usual cases, and that by itself will cause tremendous hardship and stresses on the families and the victims.

The A-G knows, and this is the strategy... by arrest and charge them for attempted murder, it is an unbailable offence, and they would have to be sent to Sg Buloh jail till the dispensation of the case at the court, who is facing serious backlogs on criminal and civil cases.

This is what Mohd Kamal Abdullah said in his Blog Kamal-Talks:

[Quote]

"The fabricated charge of causing hurt to the police officer seems really absurd. The government and attorney-general has stooped so low in prosecuting these innocent people just to prove that they are strong, powerful and can do anything. From this episode, it is clear that there is no justice for the poor, ordinary rakyat. The rich and powerful can create any situation to cause harm to these poor souls." [unquote]

Thank God! Now they can go home and be their families and also take care of their families.

In a separate case, Six murder accused were freed by the High Court without their defence being called.

Justice Ahmad Zaidi Ibrahim threw out the case against the six because he found that the prosecution had not done enough to locate two crucial witnesses to justify the use of their police statements in their absence from the trial.

The judge said the prosecution had therefore, failed to prove a prima facie case against Muhammad Hussein Abdullah, Muruges Arumugam, Tiagurajan Sinnasamy, Arul Krishnasamy, Siva Munusamy, and Munisvaran Ramachandran.

"Without their statements, there is no proof that the First to Sixth Accused are involved in this case,'' the judge ruled.

The six were alleged to have killed Regka Singh, 45, at a vacant house in Kampung Semangat, on Feb 21, 2003, between 11am and 6pm.

The judge also said the prosecution could not prove that the injury sustained by the victim had led to the victim’s death.

This case is 2003, and now it's 2007. So, it takes 4-years to dispensed off a case. So, whether those arrested are guilty or not, they had to be staying at Sg Buloh for 4-years before they know their fate.

This is a murder case; someone had died. The 31 Indians were facing a charge for attempted murder where no one died or had schemed to kill someone. It was supposed to be an assembly of people to peacefully sent a petition to the British Embassy. The police came to Batu Cave and the various acts by the police led to the outcome. What a case!!!