R Dinishwaran, 26, tells court that if he had committed the murder, he would not have surrendered to police when he saw his photo in the newspaper.
R Dinishwaran, 26, said he surrendered himself at the Sentul police station on Sept 21, 2015, after seeing his picture published in a newspaper a day earlier.
“When I went out to eat, I saw my picture in the newspaper.
“I don’t know how to read but my cousin read the news and told me that police were looking at me,” he said during the examination-in-chief by lawyer V Rajehgopal on the third day of the defence trial today.
The second defence witness said he had gone to the Sentul police station with a lawyer, M Manoharan.
“I asked the police at the counter why they were looking at me.
“They told me to wait for a while before a policeman came and told me that I was sought after for a murder case,” he said, adding that he was later held at a lock-up for a week and was brought to court on Sept 27, 2015 for a remand proceeding.
Recalling his meeting with the five other accused – M Vishwanath, S Ravi Chandaran, S Nimalan, G Gunasekaran and AK Thinesh Kumar – on Sept 3, 2015, over a car purchase deal for Vishwanath, Dinishwaran said Vishwanath and Thinesh Kumar returned to Kedah on Sept 5, 2015.
Dinishwaran said after that, he had spent his time with Nimalan before being informed that Ravi, who is also known as Selvam, had asked them to go to a shop owned by Gunasekaran to help clean the premises, which was being renovated.
To a question from Rajehgopal about whether he saw a drum at the shop, Dinishwaran agreed that he saw a white-and-red drum but was told that Gunasekaran did not need the drum and wanted to throw it away.
When asked whether he saw blood stains on the drum, he said: “No, there was only a red spill of paint.”
Dinishwaran also said that Selvam had asked Nimalan to get a forklift to lift up the drum into the back of a Mitsubishi Triton as it was heavy and filled with cement.
He said a forklift arrived at the shop and the driver then lifted the drum onto the Mitsubishi Triton and soon after that, Selvam and Nimalan came out of the shop and drove the pickup truck away.
“About 10 minutes later, they returned to the shop. At that time, the Triton was empty and there was no drum in it,” he said.
Replying to a question from Rajehgopal on whether he had asked Selvam and Nimalan about the drum and whether he knew what was in the drum, Dinishwaran said he did not ask because it had nothing to do with him.
To a suggestion by deputy public prosecutor Saiful Edris Zainuddin during cross-examination that Dinishwaran had surrendered himself because he had committed an offence of murdering Morais but could not escape as Malaysia was a small country, the witness disagreed.
“I disagree. If I commit an offence, I will not surrender. I will run away. I did not commit any offence and that is why I came forward,” he said.
Dinishwaran, 26; Thinesh Kumar, 25; Vishwanath, 28; Nimalan, 25, Ravi Chandaran, 47, and army pathologist, Dr R Kunaseegaran have pleaded not guilty to a charge of murdering Morais between 7am and 8pm on Sept 4, 2015, while Morais was on his way from Jalan Dutamas 1, Sentul, to No 1 Jalan USJ1/6D, Subang Jaya.
They were charged under Section 302 of the Penal Code, read together with Section 34 of the same code, which carries the mandatory death sentence upon conviction.
The trial before Judge Azman Abdullah continues tomorrow.
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Sumber I did not kill Kevin Morais, says accused