SHAH ALAM: A contractor and his two accomplices were sentenced to life imprisonment and two strokes of the rotan each by the High Court here yesterday for wrongful restraint and confinement of a businessman in 2012.
Judge Datuk Abdul Halim Aman also sentenced them to five years’ jail for kidnapping another man with the intention of committing wrongful confinement of the victim in the same year. The judge passed down the sentences after the contractor G S Karnam Singh, 51; S. Albert, 37; and S Vicknes Varan, 42, failed to raise reasonable doubt against the prosecution’s case.
For the first charge, the trio were charged with several other individuals still at large with having a common intention to restraint and confine Lim Kian Hwa, 35, for ransom of RM1 million. They committed the offence at Kampung Ayer Hitam, Rawang, at around 2.45 pm on June 11, 2012. Albert, a contract worker; Vicknes Varan, a lorry driver; and Karnam Singh were charged under Section 3 of the Kidnapping Act 1961 which was read together with Section 34 of the Penal Code.
For the second charge, the trio were accused of kidnapping Mohd Laithaff Taj Mohamed, 49, with the intention of confining the victim on the same day and at the same time and place. For that, they were charged under Section 365 of the Penal Code. In his judgment, Abdul Halim said the statements of defence given by the three men contradicting each other, but the statements given by 30 prosecution witnesses managed to prove that the trio were involved in the kidnapping.
“The accused’s statements were inconsistent with their defence. In fact, it was a mere denial without any concrete evidence. The defence also failed to raise doubts on the accused’s involvement in the case. Instead, based on their statement of defence, the accused admitted that they were at the scene,” he said. — Bernama