JOHOR BARU: The High Court here has reviewed the ruling 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 one.
P Tech Resources Sdn Bhd directors Wang Jing Chao, a Singaporean, and Yap Yoke Liang, as well as their lorry driver N. Maridass were charged in the Sessions Court on Monday.
Maridass is accused of illegally disposing of chemicals into Sungai Kim Kim on March 7 while Wang and Yap are charged with conspiring with him.
All three were charged under Section 34B(1)(a) of the Environment Quality Act 1974.
Yap and Wang were also charged under Section 42 of the same Act.
After they were charged, Sessions Court judge Jailani Rahman imposed a RM100,000 bail on Maridass and RM250,000 on Yap in one surety each.
He also ordered Yap to hand over his passport, while Wang was not offered bail since he is a foreigner.
High Court judge Justice 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, having 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 yesterday.
Justice Ahmad Kamal reduced Maridass’ bail 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 represented the prosecution while G. Subramaniam Nair acted for Yap and Wang, and S. Rathakrishna for Maridass.
All three posted bail.
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