REMANDED: Sari being led away to serve his remand.
SIBU: A 28-year-old gardener charged with raping an underage girl last year was yesterday brought to the Sessions Court here where he pleaded not guilty.
The court released him on RM40,000 bail with eight sureties, but he was remanded further for he could not come up with the money. He is to appear in court again on Dec 13.
Sari Rambli faces four charges under Section 376(1) of the Penal Code, which provides for a minimum five years and the maximum 30 years’ jail with whipping.
Two of the charges stated that he raped a 15-year-old (now 16) between Sept 23 and Sept 25 and between Sept 30 and Oct 1 at a rented house in Durin.
The two other charges stated he raped the same girl between Oct 15 and Oct 16 and between Oct 28 and 29 at two different hotels here.
It is believed that the 15-year-old girl was a student of a boarding school in Belawai when she befriended Sari.
It is also believed that the girl would come down to Sibu every two weeks to meet the accused.
Later, she was said to have got herself pregnant and delivered the baby at her hostel.
While washing the baby in the bathroom, she heard someone coming in and to prevent the baby from making noise she covered the baby’s mouth with a towel, which suffocated the baby.
The school warden who saw the baby and the girl telephoned the girl’s father.
A post mortem showed that the baby had died of suffocation.
The girl, meanwhile, pleaded guilty to a charge under Section 304A of the Penal Code for causing death by negligence, which carries the maximum two years’ jail, or with fine, or with both.
She was sent to Taman Sri Puteri in Miri.
Her father then lodged a police report saying that her daughter had been raped.
Sari was then arrested.
A DNA report confirmed that Sari was the baby’s father.