The Federal Court today upheld the death sentence against former army pathologist Colonel Dr R Kunaseegaran for the 2015 murder of Deputy Public Prosecutor Datuk Anthony Kevin Morais.
Chief Justice Tun Tengku Maimun Tuan Mat, leading a three-member bench, affirmed the murder convictions of Kunaseegaran, 62, S Nimalan, 31, and S Ravi Chandran, 53.
However, the court commuted the death sentences of Nimalan and Ravi Chandran to life imprisonment. Nimalan was sentenced to 35 years in prison and 12 strokes of the cane, while Ravi Chandran received 40 years’ imprisonment. No whipping was imposed on Ravi Chandran due to his age.
Justice Tengku Maimun noted that Kunaseegaran’s death sentence stood, as he had withdrawn his appeal.
The bench, which included Court of Appeal President Tan Sri Abang Iskandar Abang Hashim and Federal Court judge Datuk Rhodzariah Bujang, discharged and acquitted three other individuals—R Dinishwaran, 32, AK Thinesh Kumar, 31, and M Vishwanath, 34—citing insufficient evidence to uphold their murder convictions.
Delivering the unanimous decision, Justice Abang Iskandar said the court was satisfied that the convictions of Kunaseegaran, Nimalan, and Ravi were safe, and dismissed their appeals.
“We allow the appeals of the other three and hereby set aside their convictions for murder,” he said.
On 10 July 2020, the High Court sentenced all six men to death after finding them guilty of murdering Morais, 55, between 7am and 8pm on 4 September 2015, at locations between Jalan Dutamas Raya, Sentul, and Jalan USJ 1/6D, Subang Jaya. The Court of Appeal upheld the convictions on 14 March last year.
Morais was reported missing on 4 September 2015, after last being seen leaving his apartment at Menara Duta, Kuala Lumpur, in a Proton Perdana. His body was found inside a cement-filled oil drum at Persiaran Subang Mewah, Subang Jaya, on 16 September.
During today’s proceedings, lawyer Datuk N Sivananthan informed the court that Kunaseegaran had instructed him to withdraw the appeal against his death sentence. Nimalan’s counsel Datuk Amer Hamzah Arshad and Ravi Chandran’s lawyer Kitson Foong appealed for the sentences to be commuted to life imprisonment.
Deputy Public Prosecutor Mohd Fairuz Johari, however, urged the court to maintain the death penalties, citing the brutal nature of the crime committed against a civil servant.