BANTING: Two men were jailed a total of 28 years each after they pleaded guilty to four counts of disposing of evidence in relation to the murder of cosmetics queen Datuk Sosilawati Lawiya and three others.
However, the duo - K. Sarawanan, 19, and U. Suresh, 26 - will only serve a total of seven years in jail, the maximum jail sentence for such an offence, after the court ordered the sentences to be run concurrently.
Before passing sentence, magistrate Hurman Hussain commented that although there was no evidence linking them to the murders, “a heinous crime is still a heinous crime.”
Sarawanan, a motorcycle mechanic, was charged with burning the bodies of Sosilawati, 47, CIMB Bank officer Noorhisham Mohammad, 38, lawyer Ahmad Kamil Abd Karim, 32, and driver Kamaruddin Shamsuddin, 44, knowing that they had been murder victims.
He committed the offence at Lot 2001, Jln Tanjung Layang, Tanjung Sepat, here, between 9.45pm and 12am, on Aug 30. Suresh, an odd-job worker, was charged with intentionally disposing of the ashes of the four victims into Sg Panchau here between 8am and 10am on Aug 31.
They were accused of doing so with the intention of preventing lawyer N. Pathmanabhan, 41, as well as farm workers T. Thilaiyalagan, 19, R. Matan, 20, and R. Khatavarayan, 30, from facing legal action, an offence under Section 201 of the Penal Code.
The four were charged on Wednesday with murdering Sosilawati, Noorhisham, Ahmad Kamil and Kamaruddin.
All six accused were among eight arrested by police between Sept 9 and 12 in connection with the murders.The prosecution was led by DPP Ishak Mohd Yusoff, Saiful Edris Zainudin and Idham Abd Ghani, while M. Puravelan, Muhammad Naguib Abdul Razak, and Roslie Sulle stood as counsel for the two accused.
According to the facts of the case, after witnessing the alleged murders, Sarawanan was instructed by Thilaiyalagan and Matan to hand petrol and diesel over to them, and together they placed the victims’ bodies on top of a pile of wood.
He then piled more wood on top of the bodies before pouring petrol and diesel and lighting the fire.
Suresh witnessed Thilaiyalagan and Matan collecting something from the ground at the farm and putting it into barrels.
When he asked the two what was in the barrel, they replied that it was the ashes of the four victims, who had been murdered and burned the night before.
He then saw Kathavarayan drive an Isuzu D-Max vehicle to where they were. They loaded the barrels into the vehicle and proceeded to Sg Panchau where they threw the barrels into the river.
After that was done, he and Thilaiyalagan cleaned the site of the burning before going back to their usual work on the farm.
Prior to sentencing, Ishak told the court that the prosecution would be calling them as witnesses, and sought an order from the court to keep them separated from the other accused in this case.
