36 members of 'Gang 04' charged in court

IPOH: Thirty-six members of the notorious Gang 04 were charged at the sessions court today for being members of an organised crime group between Jan 1, 2015 to Jan 27 this year.
The group is also reportedly linked to the high-profile murder of Datin Renyce Wong Siew Ling in Jalan Hujan Emas, Overseas Union Garden, Kuala Lumpur on July 6, 2016.
Wong's eight-year-old daughter was also injured in the incident.
The suspects, aged between 20 and 60, are alleged to be involved in extortion, robbery, murder, arson, and drug trafficking.
They were charged under Section 130V(1) of the Penal Code.
The court offered no bail to all the accused, while no plea was entered by the suspects in front of judge Murtazadi Amran.
Sixteen of the suspects were represented by counsel, while the remaining 20 went unrepresented.
The accused represented by lawyers are as follows: Mohamed Shariff Mohamed Ibrahim, Muhamed Sidik Mohamed Ibrahim, M. Perbakaran, R. Sargunan, B. Murli, M. Ganesan, N. Michael Raj, Abdul Rahman Subbaiah Salim, M. Selva, S. Jesudass, K. Kartikkesan, S. Kevin, P. Jeventhyren, L. Tamil Selven, S. Kalidas, and K. Arun.
Meanwhile, those unrepresented were A. Kughan, J. Thruselvam, K. Thiruchelvan, K. Kugan, A. Samuel Dhinakaran, K. Sattiyarao, S. Vijendran, B. Chandran, T. Kavitheian, C. Tinabalan, K. Selvam, T. Kamal, S.Thatchana Moorthy, M. Munian, R. Kesavan, P. Fatri, F. Niclos, S. Jagathesan, R. Paramesh Rao, and A. Govalsamy.
If found guilty, they are liable to face a jail term of not less than five years and a maximum of 20 years.
The charges were read to them in Bahasa Malaysia and Tamil before Murtazadi.
The prosecution was led by Saiful Edris Zainuddin and Mohd Izhanudin Alias.
One of the accused had a "Datuk" title, but Perak police chief Datuk Hasnan Hassan had said that the title was not conferred in Malaysia and was instead obtained from a neighbouring country. He is believed to be a leader of the gang in a district.
Police busted the gang during Ops Cantas Silver which was launched on Jan 27 and continues now.
Earlier, the accused were transported to the lower court complex under tight security in a convoy of police vehicles.
"The group from Perak was involved in the Datin incident where the bullets used were similar to that of another murder case in Perak and also linked to two other cases of firing shots which ocurred in the state," he added.