KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (July 6): In the High Court here today, four men pleaded not guilty to charges of assassinating former Malaysian Agricultural Research and Development Institute (Mardi) information technology division director Dr Wan Hassan Wan Embong in a robbery at the latter’s home last year. The charges against security guard S. Vickeswaran, 23, mailman P. Kogilan, unemployed M. Ravindran, both 24, and electrician T. Sugu, 28, were read out by an interpreter during the case’s mention before Judicial Commissioner Datuk Aslam Zainuddin.
They were charged with murdering Wan Hassan, 73, at Jalan Mambu, Bukit Bandaraya, between 3.35 and 4 a.m. on Nov 29.
The charges were filed under Section 302 of the Penal Code, read in conjunction with Section 34 of the same Code, which stipulates that if convicted, the defendant must face the death penalty.
Ravindran, one of the defendants, also pleaded not guilty to injuring Wan Hassan’s wife, Sarifah Yusof, 71, with a machete at the same location and time, in violation of Section 324 of the Penal Code, which carries a maximum sentence of ten years in prison, a fine, or whipping, or any two of the sentences.
The four defendants also pleaded not guilty to a charge of jointly committing gang robbery on engineer Mohd Muzaffar Zulkifli Martin, 34, involving losses of about RM38,000 at a house in Taman Tiara Titiwangsa, Setapak here, on the same date between 4.12am and 5.30am, in violation of Section 395/397 of the Penal Code, which carries a maximum jail term of 20 years and whip
The prosecution was handled by Deputy Public Prosecutor Noor Dayana Mohamad, and all of the defendants were represented by lawyer Datuk Sheelan Arjunan.
The court has set the date for mention for July 27th, and the trial dates for all of the cases have been scheduled for February 7th and 11th, February 14th to 18th, and February 21st to 25th of next year.
The victim died after allegedly being hacked in a robbery event at his home, according to the media, while his wife sustained injuries to her right hand./n
