Man acquitted of double murder, High Court rules insufficient evidence

The Star

A man has been acquitted and discharged by the High Court of a double murder that occurred seven years ago, allowing him to evade the death penalty.  M. Jaykumar, 39, who faced charges for the murder of P.K. Kamala and S. Silvaraja, was declared a free man after Justice Datuk Abu Bakar Katar ruled on Friday (July 18) that there was no prima facie case against him.  Read more at https://tinyurl.com/4v89wfw8  WATCH MORE: https://thestartv.com/c/news SUBSCRIBE: https://cutt.ly/TheStar LIKE: https://fb.com/TheStarOnline

Transcript

00:00A 39-year-old man has been acquitted and discharged by the High Court in Johor Bahru

00:12of a double murder that occurred seven years ago, allowing him to evade the death penalty.

00:18M. Jaykumar, who faced charges for the murder of P.K. Kamala and S. Silva Raja, was declared a free

00:24man after Justice Datuk Abubakar Qatar ruled that there was no prima facie case against him.

00:30In his judgment, Abubakar noted the lack of evidence connecting Jaykumar, who was a labourer

00:36in Singapore, to the murders. He stated that the prosecution relied on circumstantial evidence

00:43to prove that the deaths of the two deceased were caused by injuries inflicted by the accused.

00:48He added that the court found the available evidence was insufficient to link the accused

00:55to the murders. The prosecution's failure to confirm whether jewellery sold at a pawn shop

01:00by Jaykumar belonged to one of the victims added to the doubt. Additionally, no blood traces from

01:08the deceased were found on Jaykumar's belongings, and the investigating officer failed to send his

01:13clothes or items for DNA testing. Furthermore, the timeline presented by the prosecution was questioned,

01:21as a witness testified that one of the deceased was still on the phone at 11.40pm, creating doubt

01:26regarding the estimated time of death. Justice Abubakar ordered the accused to be discharged and

01:32acquitted of both charges without being called to enter his defence. Jaykumar, a father of two,

01:38was represented by lawyers Datin Frida Sabapathy and Kay Sarawana Kumar.

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