Three students plead not guilty in 'Gang 24' incident at Klang schools

KLANG: Three secondary school students who initially pleaded guilty for being part of an illegal assembly have changed their pleas to "not guilty" at the magistrates' court, here, yesterday.
The three were among the 52 youths who had been charged on May 8 with committing the offence at the vicinity of four schools, SMK Seri Andalas, SMK Raja Mahadi, SK Simpang Lima and SMK Kampung Jawa around noon between April 20 and April 21.
All three who were expected to be sentenced during the court hearing, switch their pleas before magistrate Nor Asma Ahmad.
On May 8, 52 teenagers comprising 42 school students, nine school dropouts and a college student were charged under Section 143 of the Penal Code which carries a maximum six month jail sentence, or a fine, or both, upon conviction.
Forty-nine of the accused initially claimed trial while the trio had initially pleaded guilty to the offence. A 16-year-old suspect failed to appear at the courthouse.
One of the accused V. T. Ashwin from Taman Sentosa, here was charged as an adult, while the rest were tried as children under the Child Act 2001.
Deputy Public Prosecutor Syed Farid Syed Ali appeared for the prosecution while the accused were represented by Gerard Lazarus, Dinesh Muthal and Dave Anand.
Nor Asma then set July 27 for re-mention.
In April, 18 youths, 13 of whom are school students, were arrested for their involvement in Geng 24-related activities.
The arrests came about after two video recordings on April 20 showing a group believed to be members of Gang 24 causing a commotion outside a school in Klang went viral on social media.
The first video shows a group of people shouting and holding banners which read "24" and "TD4" while the second video shows a cake with the words "SMK Sri Andalas", "24" and "Apache ".
Following several operations, police rounded up all 52 suspects.