KUALA LUMPUR: The seventh accused in the murder of deputy public prosecutor Datuk Anthony Kevin Morais told the High Court he confronted the first accused, pathologist Colonel Dr R. Kunaseegaran, when he felt something amiss on the day the victim was reported missing.
S. Ravichandran, 47, said he and G. Gunasekaran, also known as ‘Jay’, went to Jalan Dutamas on Sept 4 to collect the latter’s debt.
“The other accused, namely, S. Nimalan, R. Dineshwaran, A.K. Thinesh Kumar, and M. Vishwanath also went with us but they traveled in a Mitsubishi Triton while Jay and I were together in a Perdana V6.
“Nimalan, who drove the Mitsubishi Triton, then called me and told me that he had been involved in an accident.
“When I arrived at the scene, I saw the Mitsubishi Triton, a Perdana V6 belonging to Kevin, and two unknown men in a white Toyota Estima parked by the roadside.
“I did not know Kevin at that time, then Jay told me he was the DPP who prosecuted Dr Kunaseegaran’s graft cases,” he said during examination-in-chief by his counsel V. Rajehgopal.
He said Jay asked him to drive Morais’s Proton Perdana to repair the damage done to it at a workshop belonging to Jay’s relative known as Murugan near Sunway Mentari.
“I do not know what happen between them (Jay, Morais and the two unknown men) as I drove away from the scene with Kevin’s car. I arrived at the workshop around 9.30am before Jay arrived about 30 minutes later.
“I saw blood on his (Jay) shirt and when I asked, he said he had been involved in another accident with a motorcycle,” he said, adding that Jay had asked him about how to dispose of a car.
Ravichandran said he was puzzled with Jay’s questions but told him that they needed to remove the vehicle’s chassis and engine numbers.
“I was shocked when Jay told me that he needed to remove Kevin’s car chassis and engine numbers as this is usually done to stolen cars, but not a car that was sent to be repaired. He urged me to help him remove the numbers,” he said.
Ravichandran said Jay also told him to buy paint and a cement scoop as he wanted to build a security post in front of his restaurant in USJ Subang.
“After I bought the things, I took a cab to Dr Kunasegaran’s office in Klang. I went there to report on several things, such as Jay’s strange behaviour asking me to remove the car chassis and engine numbers.
“Dr Kunasegaran had also asked me the same question (on how to dispose of a car), and I also wanted to ask who the two unknown men (in the white Toyata Estima) were,” he said.
Ravichandran said he urged Dr Kunasegaran to tell him the truth, that is to say whether he and Jay had planned something behind his back.
“I threw Kevin’s car keys in front of Dr Kunasegaran’s table and he asked me what it was all about. I told him about the incident and that those were Kevin’s car keys… his (Dr Kunasegaran’s) reaction was ‘normal’,” he said.
Dinishwaran, 23, Thinesh Kumar, 22, Vishwanath, 25, Nimalan, 22, and Ravichandran, were jointly-charged with murdering Morais, 55, between 7am and 8pm on Sept 4, 2015, while the victim was on his way from Jalan Dutamas Raya Sentul to No. 1 Jalan USJ1/6D, Subang Jaya.
They face the mandatory death sentence upon conviction.
Dr Kunaseegaran, 54, is charged with abetting in the murder of Morais.
Deputy public prosecutor Saiful Edris Zainuddin is prosecuting while the accused are represented by counsels M. Manoharan, Rajehgopal and G. Sivakumar.
Morais’s body was found in a drum filled with concrete at Persiaran Subang Mewah, Subang Jaya, on Sept 16, 2015.
Morais was reported missing on Sept 4, 2015 and the last time he was seen was when he was leaving his condominium in Menara Duta, here to go to work in Putrajaya by driving a Proton Perdana car with registration number WA6264Q.
Trial continues on Aug 10 before judge Datuk Azman Abdullah.
