KOTA KINABALU: An engineer has been remanded for allegedly sending death threats to counsel Datuk Ram Singh, believed due to his involvement in the Zara Qairina Mahathir inquest.
The 27-year-old will be remanded for four days starting Oct 9 until Sunday (Oct 12), after Magistrate Wan Fara Wan Ghazali allowed the remand application by the investigating officer on Wednesday (Oct 8).
Ram said the man was remanded under Section 507C(1) of the Penal Code.
This is a new amended Malaysian law that makes it a criminal offence to cause harassment, distress, fear, or alarm through threatening, abusive, or insulting words, communications, or acts.
Ram said he had started to get a message from an unknown number on Aug 28, asking if he was the lawyer representing one of the five suspects linked to the Zara Qairina’s bullying case.
The alleged person apparently continued sending messages, threatening to find him and saying that they knew where he worked, and using derogatory terms among other things.
Fearing for himself and his family's safety, he lodged a report on Sept 2.
It is learnt that the person surrendered himself to the police at the station here on Tuesday.
Ram is representing one of the five teenagers accused of hurling abusive words towards their hostel mate Zara Qairina prior to her death.
Zara Qairina was found unconscious below her hostel building in Papar on July 16 and was pronounced dead a day later when receiving treatment at the hospital.
