PUTRAJAYA (March 14): The Court of Appeal has upheld the High Court’s conviction and sentence on pathologist Col (Rtd) Dr R Kunasegaran and five others for the murder of deputy public prosecutor (DPP) Datuk Kevin Morais nine years ago.

In a unanimous decision read out by judge Datuk Hadhariah Syed Ismail, the three-person bench dismissed the appeal by Kunasegaran, money-lender S Ravi Chandaran, along with R Dinishvaran, S Nimalan, AK Thinesh Kumar, and M Vishwanath.

“The bench found that the murder was planned carefully and the murder case is out of the ordinary. The High Court’s decision is correct.

“The conviction and sentence of death by hanging is correct. That is the appropriate sentence in this gruesome case. The conviction and sentence is maintained,” judge Hadhariah said.

Hadhariah sat with judges Datuk Ahmad Zaidi Ibrahim and Datuk Azmi Ariffin.

She passed the conviction and sentence without hearing mitigation from lawyers representing the six accused, despite courts in death sentence cases being given the discretion to commute the sentence to life imprisonment.

Kunasegaran’s counsel Datuk N Sivananthan said since the court had already decided on the conviction and sentence, without hearing mitigation, then the parties would not mitigate.

Sivananthan when met outside the court said this is the first time that he had been deprived of the opportunity to mitigate the sentence, and especially considering that the government had passed laws last year giving judges the discretion on such death penalty cases.

“After seeing the grounds of judgment, we will appeal the matter to the Federal Court,” he said.

The Federal Court, which is the apex bench, is the final level of appellate appeals.

The High Court had convicted all six on July 10, 2020, with murdering Morais somewhere along the way from Jalan Dutamas Raya, Sentul, to No 1, Jalan USJ1/6D, Subang Jaya, between 7am and 8pm on Sept 4, 2015. Morais’ body was found in a cement-filled drum which had been thrown into a swamp in Subang Jaya.

His body was found in a foetal position inside a gunny sack that had been placed in a steel drum filled with cement. Five of the accused, with the exception of Kunasegaran, were involved with hitting Morais’ Proton Perdana vehicle after he left his home and then abducting the DPP.

Hadhariah, who read her brief grounds, said five of the accused had planned the crime, as they met at 5.30am and went together to the victim’s house in two cars.

She said one of the accused’s cars, a Mitsubishi Triton, had hit Morais’ car and the others in a different Proton Perdana car took the victim into their car.

“Morais’ car was found 100% burnt at a palm oil farm in Hutan Melintang, Perak and his personal belongings were thrown into a river,” judge Hadhariah added.

Not just one person involved in murder

The judge ruled that there was a common motive to kill Morais as Kunasegaran had problems with a corruption case where Morais was the DPP.

“The murder could not have been committed by a single person only, as evidence shows that the five accused had travelled down from Kedah to Kuala Lumpur to commit the crime as they were hired by Kunasegaran,” she said.

The judge said that a former co-accused, G Gunasekaran, who was the 54th prosecution witness, had testified in detail over their involvement from the accident, the disposing of Morais’ vehicle, and the buying of the cement and the steel drum in which to place the body.

Hadhariah said while the accused defence claimed that Gunasekaran’s testimony could not be trusted, the court ruled and agreed with the High Court judge that his (Gunasekaran) testimony was supported by evidence, and his testimony was safe.

“The court finds there is much evidence from Gunasekaran’s testimony that supports the High Court’s findings that found the guilt of all six accused. Hence, there is no need to disturb the findings by the High Court,” she said.

She added that Kunasegaran admitted in his defence testimony that he had shown a picture of Morais' burnt car to Gunasekaran as was testified by the witness (Gunasekaran), and this is recognised as a fact.

The defence by the other five accused that they did not have a motive and did not know the victim was considered as an afterthought.

For these reasons, the appellate court found the conviction of the six accused to be safe and the conviction is upheld.

Deputy public prosecutors Datuk Mohd Dusuki Mokhtar and Mohd Fuad Abdul Aziz appeared for the prosecution.