A senior police forensic officer told the High Court in Shah Alam today that a cricket bat was taken from Ladang Gadong in Banting, where cosmetic millionaire Sosilawati Lawiya and three others were believed murdered, for Deoxyribonucleic Acid (DNA) analysis.  

Supt Soo Me Tong, 55, head of the Chemistry Department at the Cheras Police Forensic Laboratory, said the cricket bat, which was found in a single-storey building at the farm on Sept 12, 2010, was sent for DNA test as there were blood stains and a strand of hair found on it.

“We handed over the blood stains and hair to Investigating Officer ASP Ishak Yaakob, and sent to the Chemistry Department for analysis,” he said during examination-in-chief by deputy public prosecutor Ishak Mohd Yusoff.

Soo, who is the 48th prosecution witness, is testifying in the trial of former lawyer N Pathmanabhan, 42, and three farm workers, T Thilaiyalagan, 20; R Matan, 21, and R Khatavarayan, 31, who are charged with murdering Sosilawati, 47, bank officer Noorhisham Mohamad, 38, lawyer Ahmad Kamil Abdul Karim, 32, and Sosilawati’s driver, Kamaruddin Shamsuddin, 44.

The offence was allegedly committed at Lot 2001, Jalan Tanjong Layang, Tanjung Sepat, Banting, between 8.30pm and 9.45pm on Aug 30, 2010.

All four of them are charged under Section 302 of the Penal Code, read together with Section 34, which carries the mandatory death sentence upon conviction.

Soo, when called to testify yesterday, said that his team found a certain amount of items, including bone fragments, blood stains, a cricket bat and torn pieces of an item of underwear, during a search at a single-storey building and a burning site at the farm on Sept 12 and 14, 2010.

Prior to this, the prosecution, during the start of the trial, had informed the court that they would produce a witness to testify on the finding of a DNA belonging to one of the murdered victims (Noorhisham)on the cricket bat.

Lawyer Manjeet Singh Dhillon, who represented Pathmanabhan, also raised a question about the cricket bat when cross-examining Soo.

Manjeet told the court that the Bukit Aman Criminal Investigation Department director Mohd Bakri Zinin, during a media conference on the murder case (last year), told the media that the cricket bat was found at Sungai Panchau, Banting.

    

Soo responded by saying that Bakri had given wrong information to the media.

To another question by Manjeet Singh, the police officer said he could not differentiate between the skeletal remains of a human and that of an animal like a cow, goat and dog.

He disagreed with Manjeet Singh, who said that the forensic evidence on the bone fragments which were found would be lost when they were cleaned.

‘Site was mixed with rubbish, dirt and goat stool’

“We searched for the exhibits at a site mixed with rubbish, dirt and goat stool. Therefore, we had to wash (the exhibit) so that the doctor could verify that there were bones,” he added.

Questioned by counsel Amer Hamzah Arshad about the investigation by other police forensic teams, which also involved the use of tracker dogs, at the site on Sept 9, 2010, Soo said he did not know about it.

“I was not informed if the dogs had traced bones or bodies,” he added.

On the finding of blood stains, Soo said he could identify if there were human or animal blood.

The hearing continues before Justice Akhtar Tahir continues tomorrow.

- Bernama