GEORGE TOWN: The High Court here today sentenced a homemaker and her boyfriend to death by hanging over the murder of her five-year-old son, six years ago, at the end of the defence's case.
In his judgment, Judicial Commissioner Datuk Ahmad Shahrir Mohd Salleh said the prosecution had succeeded in proving the case beyond reasonable doubt against R. Saravanan, 30, and T. Gayathry, 36.
"It is the duty of this court, at the conclusion of the trial, to determine whether the prosecution had succeeded in proving the case beyond reasonable doubt against both the accused's defence.
"In considering all the evidence brought before the court, the court finds that the prosecution has succeeded in proving the case beyond reasonable doubt against both the accused's defence.
"Both the accused are charged with murder, which carries the death penalty upon conviction. This court has to pass sentence according to the law. As such, this court sentences both of you to death," he said in passing down the sentence of death by hanging to the both of them.
Both accused, who were standing in the dock, appeared calm but Gayathry was later seen wiping her eyes with a towel.
Both the accused were jointly charged with the murder of S. Kaviarasan at a house in Taman Keladi in Kulim, Kedah, between 8am on Sept 20, 2014 and 4.05pm on Sept 27, 2014.
They were charged under Section 302 of the Penal Code, which carries the mandatory death penalty upon conviction.
The boy's body was later found wrapped in a blanket and dumped at an oil palm estate in Bukit Tengah, Butterworth on Sept 29, 2014.
Ahmad Shahrir, in providing grounds for his judgment, said as far as the first accused, Saravanan, was concerned, the alibi provided that he was not at the scene of the crime was inadmissible as the witness statement did not fall under the Criminal Procedure Code (CPC).
As for the second accused, Ahmad Shahrir asked why did she, as the biological mother of the boy, not cry for help or relate the actual story to the police when she had the chance to do so.
"It is not probable circumstances. Any mother would have sprung into action even if it means creating danger for herself.
"The fact that she was able to clean the blood on the bathroom floor after the child was brutally killed, no reasonable person would do that, but she did.
"She was left alone for four hours after the first accused bundled up the child and left the home. She did not call the police for help or any 'Ah Kau' or 'Samy' for that matter. That is not probable," he said.
Ahmad Shahrir added that when the second accused went to the police station alone to report about her child, without the first accused in sight, she did not relate what really happened to the police.
"This makes her complicit in the murder," he pointed out.
In mitigation, Saravanan's counsel, V. Parthipan, pleaded to the court to consider that this was his client's first crime.
Gayathry's counsel, Gabriel Susayan, told the court that her client had been a victim of domestic abuse at the hands of her husband, where she was in the process of filing for divorce, at the time of the incident.
He said she then sought protection from the first accused, who was a friend of her husband, and they stayed in Kulim together with her son.
"All her life, she has been facing many challenges but she loved her son dearly.
"What happened would be a black episode in her life. She would never be able to forgive herself for what had happened.
"While we accept the court's decision, I also want the court to know that my client is really, really sad and remorseful for the turn of events in her life," he added.
Deputy Public Prosecutor Yasinnisa Begam Seeni Mohideen said the case was an extraordinary one, where the second accused was the biological mother of the deceased.
She also told the court how the boy's body was only found after several days of his murder, and that the action of both accused in murdering and throwing away the boy's body was inhumane.
"The deceased was only five-years-old. He was an innocent child. He was entrusted to the second accused.
"As such, both the accused's action should be punished accordingly. Although the punishment will not bring the dead boy back to life, it serves as a reminder to society not to do the same," she added.
Both Parthipan and Gabriel told newsmen outside the court that they would appeal the death sentence.
It was reported that Gayathry had lodged a police report in Kulim, claiming that her son had disappeared near the Esplanade here on Sept 23, 2014.
She later confessed that she had lashed the boy with a belt as he was naughty and had refused to study.
She had claimed during interrogation at the Bayan Baru police lockup that the boy died abut 4.30pm on Sep 20, 2014.
The cause of death, according to the pathologist's report, was blunt force trauma to the head.