High Court intervenes in Sg Kim Kim case, all three accused offered bail, amounts reduced

JOHOR BARU: The High Court here has overturned the rulings made by the Sessions court in the Sungai Kim Kim chemical dumping case in Pasir Gudang by reducing the bail for two of the accused and offering bail to the third person.

The three men, P Tech Resources Sdn Bhd directors Wang Jing Chao, a Singaporean, local Yap Yoke Liang and their lorry driver N. Maridass, were charged in the Sessions court for the offences on March 25.

Wang and Yap face 32 charges between them, while Maridass has one charge filed against him for illegally disposing chemicals into Sungai Kim Kim.

After they were charged, Sessions Judge Jailani Rahman slapped a bail of RM100,000 on Maridass and RM250,000 on Yap with one surety each. He also ordered Yap to hand over his passport, while Singaporean Wang was not offered bail as he was a foreigner.

High Court judge Datuk Ahmad Kamal Md Shahid said the Sessions court judge did not provide a reason to justify his ruling on bail for the three.

“The Sungai Kim Kim incident has been receiving attention not only in Johor but also throughout Malaysia as it has been intensively reported by the media.

“The High Court has the right to review the decision, and I found that the learned judge has made a mistake,” he said before giving his decision at Johor Baru High Court here on Wednesday (March 27).

Ahmad Kamal reduced Maridass's bail amount from RM100,000 to RM30,000, Yap from RM250,000 to RM150,000 and offered Wang a bail of RM250,000 with two Malaysian sureties.

Wang must also report to the Pasir Gudang police station on the 15th of every month until the case is over.

Deputy Public Prosecutor Roslan Md Nor prosecuted the case, while lawyer G. Subramaniam Nair represented Yap and Wang and lawyer S. Rathakrishna represented Maridass.