Indian national to hang for murdering employer

By Jennifer Gomez

SHAH ALAM: An Indian national was sentenced to death by the High Court for murdering his employer, prominent lawyer Datuk R. Anpalagan.

R.Narayanan, who worked for Anpalagan at his temple, appeared downcast before proceedings yesterday, but looked calm after the guilty verdict was delivered.In handing down the sentence, judge Datuk Mohd Sofian Abdul Razak said that he rejected Narayanan's defence of provocation and ruled that the prosecution had proved its case beyond reasonable doubt.

Narayanan was charged in June last year with murdering Anpalagan by hacking him to death with a parang at the Sri Ramalingeswarari temple in Klang about 9.30pm on June 13.

Anpalagan was a prominent corporate lawyer specialising in land matters.

After sentencing lawyer Datuk Salehuddin Saidin, who was holding watching brief for Anpalagan's wife, asked the court for permission to allow To’ Puan Thelagam Arumugam, also a lawyer, to make a statement.

Thelagam, who was seated directly in front of the dock where Narayanan was, read out from a prepared document how the accused had handed her husband a death sentence, and her family, a life sentence, by murdering her husband of 12 years.

She talked about how life will never be the same again for her and her 12-year old daughter as well as Anpalagan's family and friends.

Thelagam kept glancing at Narayanan as she described how the accused inflicted her husband with '18 deadly slash wounds with clear intention to murder'.

"Datuk loved and adored his only daughter who was 11-years-old when he passed away. Their bond and closeness cannot be described. He was her protector and the perfect father," she said in a shaky voice.

She went on to add that it was heartbreaking to see her daughter suffer and not be able to do anything about it.

"My daughter waits for the return of her loving father everyday. I cannot believe that we will never see him again. Our hearts suffer from the deepest wound which will never recover," she said.

Thelagam added that she had difficulty sleeping since the incident and had to take medication to get her through the day.

"For most of us a temple is a holy place but for the accused, it was where he committed murder and absconded with temple jewellery.

“The temple, a place of worship has been invaded by violence, the temple has lost its sponsor," she said.

Thelagam said it was hard to accept that her husband had suffered pain, terror and betrayal when he realised that someone he trusted was taking his life.

A total of 17 prosecution witnesses testified in the trial while the defence called three witnesses, including the accused and his father.

The third defence witness was a doctor who had treated Narayanan.

Narayanan had put up a defence of provocation, where he had raised issues related to non-payment of salary, detention of his passport by the deceased, verbal abuse and assault.

Indian national to hang for murdering employer

SHAH ALAM: An Indian national was sentenced to death by the High Court for murdering his employer, prominent lawyer Datuk R. Anpalagan.

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