Six charged with murder of Kevin Morais ordered to enter their defence

KUALA LUMPUR: Six men, who were charged with the murder of Deputy Public Prosecutor Datuk Kevin Morais were ordered to enter their defence by the High Court, today.
High Court judge Datuk Paduka Azman Abdullah said after maximum evaluation of the evidence presented in the case, the prosecution has succeeded in establishing a "prima facie" case against all the six accused.
He ordered the six, including army pathologist, Dr. R.Kunaseegaran Ragavanaidu to enter their defence. The trial will continue on Jan 18, Jan 19, Jan 21, Jan 26, Feb 22 and Feb 23, next year.
The accused; R. Dinishwaran, 25, A. Thinesh Kumar, 24, M. Vishwanath, 27; S.Nimalan, 24, all unemployed and S. Ravi Chandaran, 46, a money lender, had claimed trial to murdering Morais between 7am and 8pm on Sept 4, 2015.
Meanwhile, Kunaseegaran, 54, had claimed trial to abetting the five in the commission of the murder. However, his charge was later amended during the trial, to common intention to murder, on May 15, 2017.
According to the charge, Kunaseegaran, in furtherance of the common intention, had committed murder, at the same time, place and date.
The charge under Section 302 of the Penal Code read together with Section 34 of the same act, is punishable with the death penalty.
After the decision, Kuna's lawyer Datuk N. Sivananthan told theSun that his client will testify under oath while lawyer M. Manoharan, who represented Dinishwaran and Thinesh Kumar, said his clients will also testify under oath.
Meanwhile, lawyer V. Rajehgopal who represented the three other accused, said he will inform the court when trial begins.
Following the decision, Kevin's brother, Datuk Richard Morais started clapping, but he was stopped immediately by a policeman.
Approached by the media outside the courtroom, Richard said he was happy with the court's decision.
Another accused, who was also charged with the six, G. Gunasekaran had admitted to disposing evidence and was sentenced to a two-year jail term.
A total of 70 prosecution witnesses testified in the trial, which took about 57 days, beginning from April 2016.
Deputy Public Prosecutors Saiful Edris Zainuddin, Wan Shaharudin Wan Ladin and Izzat Fauzan prosecuted.