Construction worker acquitted in murder case

S. Mugilan (middle) with his lawyers Manian K. Marappan (right) and Harpreet Kaur Gill (left).

MUAR: A 31-year-old construction worker escaped the gallows here after the Muar High Court discharged and acquitted him of a murder case.

S. Mugilan was arrested on Oct 1, 2019, and was charged under Section 302 of the Penal Code for the murder of R. Subarmy.

He was charged together with another suspect, S. Bikinis Suran, who died in Sungai Udang prison before the case went to trial.

In delivering her judgment, Judge Halijah Abbas said that the prosecution failed to prove a prima facie case against the accused, as the date of the murder on the charge sheets contradicted the date the deceased was said to have been last seen.

The date of the murder on the charge sheet was between July 4, 2018, and July 5, 2018, while the police report filed by the deceased's family member stated that he was last seen on July 12.

The judge also said that there was also no direct or circumstantial evidence showing that Mugilan had caused the death of Subarmy.

She concluded that the fact that Mugilan was last seen with Bikinis Suran and the deceased was insufficient to prove that he was responsible for the murder.

The case was prosecuted by Deputy Public Prosecutor Nur Sulehan Abd Rahman, while Mugilan was represented by lawyers Manian K. Marappan and Harpreet Kaur Gill.

The other suspect who passed away before trial, Bikinis Suran, was arrested on Nov 18, 2018 together with his two sisters.

However, charges against his two sisters were later dropped and they became police witnesses.

It was learnt that one of Bikinis Suran's sisters had a romantic relationship with the deceased after they met in 2018.

Bikinis Suran led the police to the bone remains of the deceased behind a factory in Tangkak, some four months after he was believed to have been murdered.