THE prosecution has urged the High Court in George Town to convict four men accused of murdering bullying victim T Nhaveen in 2017, arguing that their defence failed to raise reasonable doubt and contained inconsistencies with their earlier accounts.
Deputy Public Prosecutor Mohd Amril Johari said the defence had failed to rebut the prosecution’s case during the defence stage and that discrepancies had emerged between the accounts given during the prosecution’s case and the accused’s own testimony.
He said the four accused were obliged to raise reasonable doubt based on their defences during investigations and at the prima facie stage.
“Failure to do so would make the defence an afterthought and amount to nothing more than a bare denial,” he said during the final submissions in the defence stage today.
Amril also argued that the accused had not explicitly denied being present at Padang Openg or at the related location in Jalan Kaki Bukit, disputing instead that they had assaulted Nhaveen.
He said the first three accused described the incident as a scuffle, while the fourth characterised it as an argument.
However, only Previin, who was also involved in the incident, was hospitalised with injuries, he said. Although accused V Sharmah was said to have fainted and suffered injuries, there was no medical report or police report to support the claim.
The prosecution also cited testimony from Nhaveen’s mother, T Shanti, who identified the voice of accused J Ragesuthen, known as Raga, during a telephone call.
Amril said the defence had acknowledged during cross-examination that two calls were made, during which the accused allegedly told Shanti: “Previin and Nhaveen attacked us, aunty. We want to settle this.”
He urged the court to examine the differences between the Court of Appeal’s summary grounds for ordering the four accused to enter their defence and the full grounds of judgment in the appeal involving another individual, S Gopinaath, 35, who was acquitted and discharged.
The prosecution asked the court to convict all four accused and impose sentences in accordance with the law.
However, defence counsel Maanveer Singh Dhillon challenged the reliability of the prosecution’s key witness, Previin, citing conflicting accounts of the number of people who allegedly assaulted Nhaveen at Padang Openg.
He said Previin had given differing figures of four, seven, eight and as many as 20 people involved in the assault, raising questions about the credibility of his testimony.
The defence also argued that Nhaveen had not lost consciousness at Jalan Kaki Bukit and was still alert enough to ride pillion on a motorcycle.
Maanveer said there was a possibility that Nhaveen’s fatal injuries had been sustained at another location during a gap of more than two hours after the incident.
The defence further questioned the prosecution’s failure to call a person known as “Belang”, who was alleged to have taken Nhaveen away from the scene on a motorcycle.
Justice Datuk Mohd Radzi Abdul Hamid fixed Nov 16 for a case management session to hear further submissions from both sides, including specific references to the facts and appeal records, before deciding the case.
Describing the circumstances as unique, the judge said the session would allow both sides to update the court on the status of their submissions and whether further written arguments were required.
The four accused — J Ragesuthen, 27, S Gokulan, 27, K Tatisan, 26, and V Sharmah, 27 — were previously ordered to enter their defence against the murder charge over Nhaveen’s death near the Karpal Singh Learning Centre in Jalan Kaki Bukit, Gelugor, between 11pm and midnight on June 9, 2017.
They also face charges of voluntarily causing grievous hurt to T Previin, 19, using a helmet as a weapon likely to cause death at the same place and time.
Nhaveen died on June 15, 2017, after spending six days receiving treatment at Penang Hospital for severe injuries sustained during the incident. - October 14, 2026