BANTING MURDER TRIAL: Lawyer surprises court
IN THE BALANCE: Judge fixes May 9 and 10 for submissions and May 23 for judgment
SHAH ALAM: AFTER 110 days of proceedings, which spanned almost two years, and 742 exhibits tendered in court, the Banting murder trial came to an end at the High Court here yesterday with the defence closing the case.
Counsels Manjeet Singh Dhillon, Gurbachan Singh, Amer Hamzah Arshad and Hasshahari Johari Mawi closed their case yesterday after 138 witnesses had testified.
Judge Datuk Akhtar Tahir fixed May 9 and 10 for submissions and May 23 for judgment.
In the proceedings yesterday, Manjeet took everyone in court by surprise when he showed “a small demonstration” to witness Roslie Sulle.
(Roslie, 36, was the lawyer who represented K. Sarawanan who had pleaded guilty at the Telok Datuk magistrate’s court on Oct 15, 2010, to disposing of evidence in the Banting murders. Another man, U. Suresh, also pleaded guilty to the same offence. Both are currently serving 20 years’ jail).
Manjeet took a bag of ashes, poured it into a blue container and gave it to Roslie to “throw away”.
Manjeet: You are going to ask me what is this and I’m going to tell you that there was a fight in my house last night. Mann Singh and Mahinder Singh were dancing and I did not like it.
“So I killed them and burnt them. Now, I give you this container to be thrown away. You are later charged in court. So have you committed any offence? Do you know who is Mahinder and Mann?
Roslie: I don’t know them.
Manjeet: From the container, can you now separate Mahinder and Mann?
Roslie just smiled.
Manjeet: This is not a joke. I’m demonstrating how ridiculous your actions and the deputy public prosecutors’ conduct were (at the magistrate’s court when Sarawanan pleaded guilty). So can you separate Mahinder and Mann?
Roslie: No.
Manjeet: Did you dispose of Mahinder and Mann? How do you know it wasn’t the remains of my cat, or dog? What sort of lawyer are you?
Roslie: I had discussed with Puravalen (lawyer M. Puravalen) that day and he was the one who studied the facts of the case. I only prepared the mitigation.
Manjeet: So are you saying Puravalen did not think the facts of the case were incomplete and that it did not show any offence? Were you even in court that day?
Roslie: Yes I was in court.
“I put it to you that this was all a conspiracy to get the two boys out of the way so that the facts of the case can be used in another trial,” said Manjeet, to which Roslie disagreed.
Roslie was testifying in the trial of N. Pathmanabhan, 44, T. Thilaiyalagan, 22, R. Matan, 23, and R. Kathavarayan, 33, charged with the murders of cosmetics millionaire Datuk Sosilawati Lawiya, 47, bank officer Noorhisham Mohamad, 38, lawyer Ahmad Kamil Abdul Karim, 32, and driver Kamaruddin Shamsuddin, 44, at Ladang Gadong, Lot 2001, Jalan Tanjong Layang, Tanjung Sepat in Banting, between 8.30pm and 9.45pm on Aug 30, 2010.
