Jenain was said to have returned his patrol pack minus 21 rounds for his MP5 after the night of the shooting. — file pic
SHAH ALAM, Oct 20 — Twenty-one bullets out of 100 supplied to Corporal Jenain Subi for patrol duty on April 25 were found missing the next day, a police firearms storekeeper told the Sessions Court today, in the Aminulrasyid Amzah shooting trial.
Lance-Corporal Ismail Daud, in charge of the Section 11 police station’s weapons store, told the court he had personally handed a Heckler and Koch MP5 A3 submachine gun (HK MP5 A3) and four magazines containing a total of 100 rounds of bullets to the patrolman working the graveyard shift at 9pm on April 25, but received only 79 bullets back when Jenain returned the weapon and its supplied pack the next morning.
Ismail added he had recorded the shortage in the Section 11 police station diary. He also removed the gun and the affected magazine from circulation, and stuck notes for them not to be issued for use.
Police forensics had recovered two live bullets and 17 spent casings from the housing area in Section 11 here where the Form Three schoolboy lived and was found dead six months ago, after a high-speed car chase with the cops.
Jenain, 48, is charged with the culpable homicide not amounting to murder of 14-year-old Aminulrasyid, who took a midnight joyride in a car and was allegedly mistaken for a felon on the run.
Stepping up its pace, the prosecution followed up on Ismail’s disclosure by asking him if he had asked the accused the reason for the shortage.
As the trial’s 17th witness opened his mouth to answer, Jenain’s lead counsel, M.M. Athimulan leapt to object to the question, citing Section 113(1) of the Criminal Procedure Code.
The senior lawyer said Ismail’s reply could potentially prejudice the case against his client as it may be taken as an admission of guilt.
Deputy public prosecutor Dusuki Mokhtar defended his questioning, arguing that any oral evidence was to be made directly by the person who had said it, based on the rules in the Evidence Act.
Athimulan parried by questioning Dusuki on his intention to extract the information from Ismail, saying the latter’s answer, if he reported what Jenain said, could be taken as hearsay evidence that was not admissible in court.
As the two lawyers — one full-headed and the other bald — readied for what could have been a protracted verbal battle, judge Latifah Mohd Tahar cut in and asked: “So it’s not for a confession?”
Dusuki said no, to which the judge allowed the question.
The witness told the court that he did ask Jenain if he had used the gun after finding one of the four magazines only had four 9mm bullets left, instead of the 25 issued at the start of the patrolman’s shift.
“Dia beritahu saya ‘Ada’ tapi tak pasti berapa peluru dilepaskan (He told me ‘Got’, but wasn’t sure how many bullets had been discharged),” Ismail related.
Under cross-examination from the defence later, Ismail stressed that his duty was to issue firearms only to police personnel based at the Section 11 police station and nowhere else.
He affirmed he had handed over two HK MP5 A3 submachine guns and bullets to Corporal Jenain and Constable Malkeet Singh who were both on patrol duty that shift, which starts 10pm on April 25 and ends at 6am on April 26.
Ismail also emphasised that only Jenain’s kit was incomplete when the latter returned the articles at 6.42am on April 26, after his shift ended.
Jenain who had partnered junior policeman Mohamad Hafidz Mohd Yusof for the 10-to-six shift had patrolled Sector 6, which included the Section 11 housing area where Aminulrasyid lived and died.
The trial will resume in the afternoon with government chemist Dr Seah Lay Hong’s testimony.
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