Decision on July 10 whether the six accused will walk out of the court as free men or be sentenced to the gallows.
The Kuala Lumpur High Court today fixed July 10 to deliver judgement on the fate of six men charged with the murder of deputy public prosecutor, Datuk Anthony Kevin Morais about five years ago.
Judge Datuk Azman Abdullah fixed the date after hearing closing submissions from deputy public prosecutors Saiful Edris Zainuddin and Wan Shaharuddin Wan Ladin and lawyers Datuk N Sivananthan and Datuk Sheelan Arjunan.
Apart from army pathologist Dr R.Kunaseegaran, the five other accused are S Ravichandran, 49; S Nimalan, 24; R Dineshwaran, 25; AK Thinesh Kumar, 24; and M Vishwanath, 27.
Earlier, Sivananthan told the court that there was no connection between his client and the other five accused with the murder.
He said the prosecution’s allegation against Kunaseegaran was that he wanted to take revenge on Morais for initiating corruption charges against him.
He argued that although the prosecution contended that the accused was actively involved in the murder, there was no circumstantial evidence to prove it.
He added that the prosecution had also failed to prove that the accused was at the locations where the murder and disposal of the body took place.
Sivananthan said the only thing linking Kunaseegaran to the case was that he apparently smiled when told about what had befallen Kevin. That, however, does not denote motive, the lawyer argued.
He also argued that the issue raised by the prosecution that Kunaseegaran had motive because he was holding a grudge against Morais does not translate into an order to kill.
He said it was not disputed that Kunaseegaran was unhappy with Morais handling his corruption cases in the Shah Alam court, but the accused did nothing about it.
He added that the five other accused had common intention among them, but they did not have a common intention with Kunaseegaran.
“There is no evidence to support the accused’s charge under Section 34 to show that all the accused had common intention. The accused was not at the locations where the murder took place and there was no phone record to show that they contacted each other during the time of the murder,” he said.
Meanwhile, Sheelan who represented the five accused pointed out that the wire that was used to tie Morais’s body had contained the DNA of an unidentified man that did not belong to any of the accused.
“There might be a possibility that the DNA belongs to the real killer and if all the accused had murdered the victim, their DNA would be on the wire.
“The prosecution had failed to show where the victim was killed and who killed him and there was no evidence to show that the accused had murdered the victim,” he said in closing his submissions.
Saiful Edris in rebuttal, said based on circumstantial evidence, Kunaseegaran was seen as someone who had problems with the deceased which proves the motive.
He said although the accused was not seen anywhere in the locations where the crime occurred, he was stressed out due to the additional charges he faced in his case that Morais was handling.
“In the testimony of deputy Public Prosecutor Savinder Singh Jugindar Singh, the prosecution witness confirmed that the accused had expressed dissatisfaction with the two additional charges against him which had caused his legal fees to be increased.
“Another witness testified that the accused had mentioned that the additional charges he faced would cause him to become poor,” he said adding that Kunaseegaran had also applied for Morais to be recused from prosecuting his case.
Wan Shaharuddin said it was safe for the court to convict all the accused since the evidence by them adduced before the court were not in their favour.
“The prosecution has proved its case beyond reasonable doubt against all accused and we urge the court to convict and sentenced them to the gallows,” he said closing his submissions.
A total of 70 prosecution witnesses and 14 defence witnesses including all the accused took the stand to testify in the trial which began on Aprill 6, 2016.
All the accused were ordered to enter their defence on Jan 18, 2018.
Kunaseegaran, Ravichandran, Nimalan, Dineshwaran,Thinesh Kumar and Vishwanath, were charged with murdering Morais, 55, between 7am and 8pm on Sept 4, 2015, while the victim was on his way from Jalan Dutamas Raya Sentul to No. 1 Jalan USJ1/6D, Subang Jaya.