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8 theSun | THURSDAY NOVEMBER 6 2008

Ex-deputy minister’s son freed of murder charge

KUALA LUMPUR: A formerdeputy minister’s son and twoothers were acquitted anddischarged by the High Court here yesterday of a charge of murdering a doctor five yearsago.

Justice Datuk MohamedApandi Ali, in acquittingcollege student Nor AdzlanIdris, 25, and Lee Jun Jo, 27,and Choy Chin Chuan, 25,both unemployed, without calling for their defence, ruledthat the prosecution had failedto make out a prima facie caseagainst them.

They were charged withmurdering Dr T. Ariaratnam,66, at Arinaga Medical Centrein Bangsar Park here between3.30am and 4am on April 21,2003.

Nor Adzlan is a son of TanSri Idris Abdul Rauf, a formerdeputy federal territoriesminister and former MP for

TWO OTHERS ALSO ACQUITTED OVER MURDER OF BANGSAR PARK DOCTOR

Up to 75% Industrial Court cases settledKUALA LUMPUR: The Human Re-sources Ministry has settled 60% to75% of the industrial cases this yearthrough the newly-introduced arbitra-tion process.

The minister, Datuk Dr S. Subrama-niam, said yesterday only 512 caseswere referred to the Industrial Courtthis year compared with 3,200 last

 year.“We have saved time and cost. But,

more importantly, we have ensuredspeedier justice for all parties in adispute,” he said when opening theMalaysian Employers Federation (MEF)2008 Conference here.

Subramaniam said that in the lastsix months, he had personally handledmany of the cases and managed toreduce the number of cases referredto the Industrial Court.

He said the ministry wanted toensure there was no backlog of casesas this had caused hardship to theparties involved.

The delays in many cases werebecause of technical reasons and notcaused by the courts.

“We hope the amendments tothe Employment Act and the LabourAct will further assist in the speedydisposal of cases,” he said.

On foreign workers, Subramaniamsaid the government was on trackwith plans to reduce the number byabout 500,000 within the next two

 years despite the Home Ministry stillapproving new permits for foreignworkers.

“We can’t help it because theplantation and construction sectorsstill need foreign workers as locals donot want to take up the job offers,” hesaid.

The government’s target was tobring down the number of legal foreignworkers from 2.2 million to 1.7 or 1.8million in two years.

He also warned companies to en-gage local workers and refrain, as far aspossible, from hiring foreign workers inview of the global economic meltdownwhich could see many workers out of

 jobs as companies and factories shutdown operations.

On the minimum wage, Subra-maniam said many could lose their jobs if the government implementedthe RM900 a month minimum wageas proposed by the Malaysian TradesUnion Congress, as employersmight want to trim their operationsbecause of rising operational costs.– Bernama

Parit Buntar.Mohamed Apandi said the

prosecution, which had called21 witnesses, including KualaLumpur Hospital forensicconsultant Dr Mohamed ShahMahmud, had relied heavilyon circumstantial evidence toprove its case.

“The burden is on theprosecution to assist the

court in making irresistibleconclusion that all of theseyouths had common intentionin murdering Dr Ariaratnam,”he said.

He said he was not callingfor their defence mainlybecause of several “gapingholes” in the prosecution’scase, especially the failureto call two Indian nationals

who should have been criticalwitnesses.

The failure of theprosecution and theinvestigating officer in takingdiligent steps to ensure thepresence of the two clinicassistants, VellaichamySockalinggam and VasudevanPerumal, had weakened theircase.

Mohamed Apandi said theprosecution had also failed toprove the common intentionand pre-planning on the part of the accused to rob and killthe doctor.

Although there wasevidence by two prosecutionwitnesses the trio haddiscussed the robbery, it was not clear and there was

an absence of proof of whoamong the three had causedthe fatal slash wound on thedoctor’s head.

He said the court decidednot to call the trio to entertheir defence mainly tostop the defence fromexposing further holes in theprosecution’s case.

Deputy public prosecutorAfzainizam Abdul Aziztold reporters he will referthe matter to the attorney-general’s office for furtherinstruction.

Counsel Gooi Soon Sengappeared for Lee, K.Y. Leongfor Choy, and Naran Singh forNor Adzlan.

Lee had to be sent backto the Sungai Buloh prisonpending the outcome of another case in which heis charged with five otherswith causing the death of aninmate during a riot in 2006.

Marine police seizeRM3.2m handphonesKLANG: Marine police detained an Indonesianvessel on its way home and seized 13 suitcasesfilled with 12,838 handphones worth an esti-mated RM3.2 million.

Federal marine police commander SAC IIIsa Munir said the captain, two crew membersfrom Indonesia and a Malays ian, aged between37 and 48, were also detained at about 12.30pmwhile marine police were patrolling the SouthPort area of Port Klang yesterday.

Police found 14 boxes filled with telephoneaccessories inside the vessel that had beendeclared and cleared by the customs.

Isa said the Malaysian was arrested whenhe tried to bribe the police, offering RM30,000for the release of the goods.