SUNGAI PETANI: Two men have been fined RM4,000 and sentenced to four days' jail each by the magistrate's court here today after pleading guilty to four counts of charge with causing injuries to civilians in a fireworks explosion during Thaipusam chariot procession last Thursday .
Magistrate Mohamad Fared Abd Latif passed down the sentenced on V. Indran and S. Pubalan, both 25, after they pleaded guilty to the charges under Section 337 of the Penal Code for voluntarily causing hurt to four people during the incident.
Indran, a crane operator and Pubalan, an assistant cook, were jointly charged with committing the offence in front of Vetrikel Restaurant in Pekan Lama, Jalan Kuala Ketil by lighting up fireworks in a careless manner and imposing danger to others about 8.29pm last Thursday.
Each of them was slapped with four counts of charge with causing injuries on S. Vasatha, 55; R. Savinthra, 11; N. Murugan, 60; and D. Kumar, 38; at the same time and place.
The duo, who were represented by lawyer R. Babunaidu, pleaded guilty when the charge was read to them by the court interpreter.
Deputy Public Prosecutor Geetha Jora Singh urged the court to impose a deterrent sentence as a lesson to both accused for lighting up fireworks in public despite realising that there was a large crowd at the scene witnessing the procession.
She said as adults, the duo should have realised that their act had exposed danger and harm to civilians who were attending the event to celebrate Thaipusam.
In mitigation, Babunaidu pleaded for leniency as both accused had no intention to harm others as they were just merely lighting up the fireworks to celebrate Thaipusam.
He said both men, who had no previous record, had also surrendered themselves to the police and had given their full cooperation throughout the investigation.
"Both accused fully regretted their act and are remorseful," he told the court.
Mohamad Fared then fined each of the accused RM1,000 fine and four days' jail term for each charge and ordered for the imprisonment to run from the date of their arrest.
Indran and Pubalan, however, were spared from the four days' jail term as they had been been remanded for seven days following their arrest on Feb 1.
