PUTRAJAYA, March 20 — A former police officer escaped the gallows today after the Court of Appeal acquitted and discharge him of murdering a trader in 2014.
A three-judged panel, consisting of Justices Datuk Ahmad Zaidi Ibrahim, Datuk Mohamed Zaini Mazlan, and Datuk Noorin Badaruddin, unanimously allowed S. Selva Kumar’s appeal to overturn both his murder conviction and the death sentence imposed by the High Court.
The panel acquitted and discharged Selva, 47, for the murder of S. Shanker Ganesh, 23, at Kuil Batu 8, in Sungai Gadut, Senawang, Seremban, Negeri Sembilan, between 2pm and 7pm on February 22, 2014.
In delivering the court’s decision, Justice Noorin said there were contradictions in the evidence given by three prosecution witnesses, leading to insufficient credible evidence to prove that Selva had shot the deceased to death.
Without scientific evidence to corroborate their claims, the accused's conviction remains unsafe.
She said that the prosecution failed to present sufficient evidence to show any intent or knowledge on Selva’s part concerning the murder.
“There were material contractions regarding who witnessed the shooting, who buried the deceased’s body, when the appellant (Selva) was present at the scene when the deceased was said to be buried and how the deceased was shot,” Justice Noorin said.
The cause of the deceased’s death had not been determined, and there was also no confirmation as to whom the two bone fragments that were found near the crime scene belonged to since the DNA profile could not be obtained.
A reasonable doubt arose on whether it was the deceased body that was discovered from the place shown by a prosecution witness or that the skeleton found was that of the deceased and no one else.
The Seremban High Court convicted Selva in March 2022, sentencing him to death, leading him to appeal the decision.
According to the facts of the case, a police report was filed by the deceased's wife on February 25, 2014, claiming that her husband had been arrested by the police. However, upon visiting the Seremban district police headquarters, she was informed that her husband had not been detained.
The wife then received a call from a close friend of the deceased, who claimed that the accused had allegedly arrested the deceased.
Subsequent police investigations led to the arrest of a man who confessed that he, with two others, had buried a corpse at Batu 8 Temple in Sungai Gadut.
The man then led a police team to the area and showed them the spot where the body was buried. They carried out a dig and found bone fragments. The police then arrested Selva in May 2018, over four years after the incident.
In the court proceedings, lawyer Datuk Rajpal Singh represented Selva, while Deputy Public Prosecutor Mohd Fuad Abdul Aziz appeared for the prosecution.
— Bernama
