SHAH ALAM: A 27-year-old unemployed man was sentenced to six years imprisonment and ordered to be given three strokes of the rotan by the Sessions Court here for injuring a woman and her child with a machete.
He was also jailed for an additional three years and ordered to be caned once for robbing a convenience store of RM115.
P. Suzendran had been charged with committing both the offences with two others - A. Alagendran, and S. Sathiyakumar, both 39, on Tuesday (April 23), but he is the only one who pleaded guilty whilst the other two had claimed trial.
For the first offence, the trio were accused of causing grievous injury to the 37-year-old woman and her seven-year old child with a machete near a row of fast-food outlets in Kota Kemuning at about 7am on March 27.
They were also accused of robbing the convenience store in Section 23, Shah Alam at about 5.25am on April 11.
When delivering her sentence, judge Norazlin Othman chided Suzendran.
“Your action in this incident was cruel, you even injured the victims,’’ said Norazlin.
However, Norazlin noted in her judgement that Suzendran had saved the court’s time by pleading guilty and hence deserved a lighter sentence.
But, she added, the court had to take into consideration the frequency of robberies happening in the country.
“What you did was also cruel, and so you are sentenced to six years imprisonment and three strokes (of the rotan),’’ said Norazlin for the first offence.
Suzendran’s counsel Muhammad Hidhir Mustapa mitigated that his client, an only child, was a good son and person but had been misled by his friends.
He added that Suzendran was also remorseful over what he had done.
Deputy Public Prosecutor Fatin Hosna Mohamad Zikri, meanwhile, asked for a heavy penalty so that it would be a lesson to the accused as well as the public at large.
For injuring the mother and her child, the trio could be jailed for up to 20 years with a fine or whipping under Section 326 of the Penal Code read together with Section 34 of the same Act for voluntarily causing grievous hurt using a weapon.
For robbing the convenience store, the imprisonment could reach a maximum of 14 years with a fine or whipping under Section 392 of the Penal Code for robbery.
