Pendakwa Raya v 1. ) THIRUMURUGAN A/L MUTIAH 2. ) VASANTHAN A/L VEERAMOHAN 3. ) THURAIRAJU A/L GANESON 4. ) RAGU VELAN A/L MASANAM 5. ) LOGESWARAN A/L MANICKAM

Case Significance

Illustrates the maximum-evaluation standard at the close of the prosecution case in a joint murder trial under section 302 read with section 34 of the Penal Code: where the evidence, properly scrutinised, leaves doubts about the ingredients or each accused's participation, no prima facie case is made out and the accused are acquitted without being called on their defence.

This High Court decision at Shah Alam concerns a murder prosecution against five accused, tried jointly, that failed at the close of the prosecution case. The five accused were charged that, acting together in the early hours of 16 March 2020 at a beach in the Kuala Langat district of Selangor, they murdered the deceased, an offence under seksyen 302 Kanun Keseksaan (section 302 of the Penal Code) read with seksyen 34 (section 34, common intention). All five pleaded not guilty and claimed trial. The questions for the court at the close of the prosecution case were whether the essential ingredients of the charge had been established — whether the accused had caused the death of the deceased and whether the necessary mens rea had been proved — against each of them on the footing of common intention. Applying the settled test that at the close of the prosecution case the evidence must be subjected to a maximum evaluation, scrutinised properly rather than perfunctorily, and that a prima facie case is not made out if that evaluation leaves doubts in the prosecution case, the court found that the prosecution's evidence did not establish a prima facie case against the accused. It held that the defence ought not to be called merely to clear or clarify such doubts. Accordingly, the court melepaskan dan membebaskan (discharged and acquitted) all five accused of the charge and did not call any of them to enter a defence. The judgment is a useful illustration of the maximum-evaluation standard applied at the close of the prosecution case in a joint murder trial: where the evidence, properly scrutinised, leaves doubts about the ingredients of the offence or the participation of each accused under common intention, a prima facie case is not made out and the accused are entitled to be acquitted without being called on their defence.