The Kuala Lumpur High Court has discharged and acquitted all seven people over the high-profile murder of property agent and mother-of-five Datin Renyce Wong Siu Ling last year.
- Wong’s husband did not attend court to give evidence, helping them to go scot free
- Police said murder due to RM13mil ceramic business deal between deceased and a suspect.
- Prosecution witnesses could not say suspect hired others to murder victim
In the incident at about 2.30pm on July 6, 2016, Wong was gunned down in Taman OUG, Old Klang Road, while driving her children and maid to lunch.
Her daughter, then aged eight, who was in the front passenger seat, was also hit when the gunmen fired five bullets at her Toyota Vellfire, one piercing her intestines in nine places.
M Pal Ganapathy, 27, S Vijendran, 30, K Sri Kanapathy, 35, Chen Yuen Ming, 42, Chin Kok Leong, 45, K Sattiyarao, 30, and the lone woman Liew Lai Chen, 48, were acquitted from the charge without their defence being called.
Ganapathy and Vijendran were charged with Wong’s murder under Section 302 of the Penal Code while the rest were charged with abetment of the alleged crime.
Justice Azman Abdullah said that the prosecution failed to demonstrate common intent between the two main accused – Ganapathy and Vijendran – that was necessary under Section 34 of the Penal Code pertaining to the joint commission of crimes, according to The Star.
“From the CCTV footage, the licence plate of a motorcycle ridden by two men could not be distinguished as well as their looks as they wore full-face helmets,” he was quoted as saying.
FMT reported that Azman also said that Wong’s husband had failed to come to court and give evidence, which led to a break in the chain of circumstantial evidence, also the intention for murder was not established.
“He did not come to explain the alleged roles the seven people played in causing the deceased’s death,” he was quoted as saying.
He ruled that the prosecution witnesses could not say Chin had hired anyone like Ganapathy and Vijendran to murder Wong.
“Wong’s sister and friend have testified that Wong had issues with Chin over their ceramic business partnership and purchase of a company in the US,” he reportedly said.
Absolving the husband from involvement in her murder, the High Court held that his failure to testify in the trial of the seven resulted in a weak case against the accused, helping all of them to go scot free, The Star reported.
Azman said the failure of the husband to turn up raised two possibilities.
“First, he has knowledge of the murder and is afraid to come forward. Secondly, he could be involved,” the judge was quoted as saying.
Azman, however, pointed out there was the testimony of the final witness, Wong’s younger sibling, who stated that the victim once mentioned to her “to pass all the documents to the husband should anything happen to her”.
Police said the murder was due to a RM13 million ceramic business deal between Wong and a main suspect.
Attorney-General Tan Sri Apandi Ali said his office would appeal against the decision “as soon as possible”.