KUALA LUMPUR: A businessman pleaded not guilty in a Sessions Court here to six counts of submitting false documents to Socso to claim incentives amounting to RM1.26mil under the Penjana Kerjaya 2.0 programme.
M. Karthikesan, 44, who is the owner of Fajaa Murudana Sdn Bhd, was alleged to have submitted the Employee Verification Form for the Employee Recruitment Incentive Programme, dated May 12 and 25, and June 4, 2021, containing false information on behalf of the company to three Socso officials.
He was charged with intending to deceive Socso by giving the names of 34 employees who were actually not employees of Fajaa Murudana.
According to Bernama, Karthikesan was charged with committing the offence at Wisma Perkeso, Jalan Tun Razak here and at Persiaran Perdana Precinct 2, Putrajaya, between May 19 and Aug 3, 2021.
The charges are framed under Section 18 of the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) Act 2009 and punishable under Section 24 (2), with jail of up to 20 years and a fine of not less than five times the value of the offence or RM10,000, whichever is higher.
Judge Azura Alwi allowed Karthikesan a bail of RM50,000 with one surety.
He was also ordered to surrender his passport to the court and report himself at the Selangor MACC office.
The court set March 1 for mention.
Deputy public prosecutor from MACC, Mohamad Fadhly Mohd Zamry, prosecuted while lawyer S. Vijaya represented the accused.
Last Jan 13, Karthikesan pleaded not guilty to nine counts of committing a similar offence, involving false claims amounting to more than RM1.4mil.
Penjana Kerjaya is an economic recovery initiative under the Human Resources Ministry introduced in Budget 2021.
