JOHOR BARU: In a quiet corner of a middle-class neighbourhood, a seemingly ordinary single- storey house, adorned with red lanterns and banners, serves as a Chinese temple. However, this nondescript place harbours a tragic past.
About 24 years ago, a gruesome murder took place here, claiming the lives of a family of seven spanning three generations.
This dark history is acknowledged within the temple, where seven miniature photographs of the deceased are displayed alongside several Hindu prayer items kept in one of the rooms.
“It was a murder case that even grabbed international headlines,” said Persatuan Penganut Dewa Zhang Sheng temple chairman Lee Lian Chye, 56.
Lee, who has been taking care of the temple from day one, said they knew about the history of the house but decided to move in anyway in 2012.
“The rental was only RM400 at that time,” he explained.
It is now RM700.
The house, he said, had been vacant for many years after the murder occurred on July 28, 2001.
Lee brushed aside questions about the history of the house, saying that he had never experienced anything odd or eerie.
He, however, acknowledged that no one has ever spent the night there.
These days, a huge statue of a deity stands guard at the hall of the three-room house.
A dozen others of various sizes are placed around the house including in the kitchen area.
“In the early days, this temple was popular. People would come from as far as Singapore to pray as they believed it would bring them wealth and luck in their career,” Lee recalled.
But the Covid-19 pandemic, he said, became a turning point with fewer visitors since then.
These days, the temple only opens on Fridays.
“I have a regular job. I need to work to earn a living,” he said.
Lee, who is a businessman, said the house is being rented from a family member of the deceased.
However, he said the temple members hope to get a piece of land from the state government to relocate so that they could have a place of their own.
A temple volunteer, Chen Boon Ping, who previously offered religious classes to former convicts at the Ayer Molek prison, recalled the murder which he said was “big news” then.
“I remember two Bangladeshis being arrested and brought to the prison where I taught Buddhism,” said Chen, 52.
The Bangladeshi nationals, Mohd Masud Rana Mohd Mofiz Uddin and Razaul Karim Mohd Soleman Ali Fakir, aged 27 and 32 then, were charged with having killed the family between 1.41am and 7.43am on July 28, 2001.
The deceased were S. Perumal Suppan, 49, his wife Mangala Gowri Kathiravalu, 42, Perumal’s sisters Amudavalli Suppiah, 45, and Letchimee Suppan, 51, Perumal’s mother Ramaiee Suppiah, 65, Ramaiee’s brother Muniandy Suppiah, 71, and Amudavalli’s daughter Vasagi Balakrishnan, 27.
Mohd Masud was sentenced to death for the crime on July 11, 2007, while the court released Razaul Karim.
One of the neighbours, who declined to be named, said he had been living next door since 2003.
“I bought the place at a good price. The previous owner was trying to sell it for almost one year,” said the man, who is from Singapore.
He said that he and his family have been living there peacefully from the day they moved in.
“I have not encountered anything strange,” he said.
