Hearing of RMAF Sergeant Tharmendran's case postponed to July 22

(Bernama) - The hearing of the case involving Royal Malaysian Air Force (RMAF) Sergeant N. Tharmendran and businessman K. Rajandran Prasad on charges of conspiring to steal and disposing off two RMAF jet engines has been postponed to July 22 due to the appointment of a new counsel.

Sessions Court judge Aslam Zainuddin set the date after lawyer V. Ravichandran informed the court that he was the new counsel appointed by Tharmendran, 43, and that he needed time to study the documents on the case.

Ravichandran told the court that the previous counsel N. Surendran, had yet to handover the documents on the case to him.

"I was informed by Surendran that he would give me all the documents the latest by next week," he added.

The case was postponed to today after Tharmendran informed the court two days ago that his lawyer (Surendran) was withdrawing from the case.

Meanwhile, at today's proceeding, lawyer Gobind Singh Deo , who represented Rajandran, 38, claimed that the charge against his client was flawed because the time when the alleged offence was committed was not clearly stated on the charge sheet.

However, deputy public prosecutor Feisal Syed Amir said the point raised by the defence was not an important issue.

Aslam said the matter would be raised should there be any witness who mentioned the time when the alleged incident took place.

On Jan 6 last year, Tharmendran pleaded not guilty to conspiring with airman Mohamad Shukri Mohamad Yusop to stealing two J85-21 model of F5 jet engines from the Material Processing Shed MATRA 1, Sungai Besi RMAF base, here, on April 30, 2008.

He was charged under Section 380 of the Penal Code which is punishable with imprisonment for up to 10 years and a fine upon conviction.

Rajandran Prasad, the director of a supply company, also pleaded not guilty on the same date to the charge of intentionally disposing off the engines at 49, Jalan TS 6/6, Taman Industri Subang on April 30, 2008.

Rajandran was charged under Section 414 of the Penal Code which is punishable with a jail term of up to seven years and a fine upon conviction.

On Aug 20 last year, Tharmendran also pleaded not guilty to a charge of laundering a sum of RM62,000 while Rajandran pleaded not guilty to five such charges involving RM437,319.50.