SEREMBAN: A man whose two young children drowned after the car they were in plunged into Sg Linggi claimed trial in the Sessions Court here to a charge of causing their death.
Abdul Rahman Mahmud, 46, pleaded not guilty after the charge was read to him before Judge Surita Budin.
The accused was charged with committing the offence at about 11.45am on Sept 4.
The incident occurred at the Sg Linggi estuary in Tanjung Agas in Port Dickson.
He was charged under Section 304(a) of the Penal Code for culpable homicide not amounting to murder.
Offenders can be jailed up to 30 years and fined upon conviction.
Deputy public prosecutor M. Pusppa then asked for a next mention date as the forensic, chemist and Puspakom reports were not ready.
She also told the court her team was not offering the accused bail as he posed a flight risk.
"If this happens, it will make the prosecution's case difficult," she said.
The accused, who was unrepresented, pleaded for bail as he wanted to visit his children's graves.
Judge Surita refused the accused bail and fixed Nov 10 for the next mention for the submission of documents and to allow him to appoint a counsel. Also in the car was a woman believed to be the man's female lover.
The two young siblings, aged eight and six, drowned when the car they were in and parked next to the river started moving and plunged into it.
The victims were resting in the car with the couple just before the incident.
Based on the police's preliminary probe, the man got out of the parked car to have a cigarette when it suddenly began rolling towards the river.
The car engine was switched off at the time of the incident.
Passersby managed to save the woman, but the children were trapped in the vehicle.
The car involved had also been reported stolen in Johor in 2022.
When met at another event later, state police chief Dep Comm Datuk Alzafny Ahmad said police have released the accused's 41-year-old lover on a bond.
The woman, he said, will appear in court later as a prosecution witness.
