A radiology consultant informed the High Court in Shah Alam today that the 25 specimens sent to her for investigation were possibly human bone fragments.

Kuala Lumpur Hospital (KLH) Radiology and Imaging department head Dr Zaleha Abd Manaf, 52, was testifying on the 50-th day of the trial of former lawyer N Pathmanabhan and three farm workers T Thilaiyalagan, R Matan and R Khatavarayan who are charged with the murders of Cosmetics millionaire Sosilawati Lawiya, 47, bank officer Noorhisham Mohamad, 38, lawyer Ahmad Kamil Abdul Karim, 32 and Sosilawati’s driver Kamaruddin Shamsuddin, 44.   

She admitted to the court however, that her finding was not necessarily a hundred percent accurate.  

Cross-examined by Manjeet Singh Dhillon, representing first accused Pathmanabhan, on the different results reached by her and KLH forensics consultant Dr Nurliza Abdullah (63rd prosecution witness), Dr Zaleha said it was possible for two experts to reach different conclusions.      

Dr Nurliza had earlier testified that it was highly possible that 2,030 of the 2,040 specimens found at the alleged murder scenes, a river and a farm in Banting, were human bone fragments and teeth.   

Pathmanabhan, 42; Thilaiyalagan, 20; Matan, 21; and Kathavarayan, 31 who allegedly committed the offences at Lot 2001, Jalan Tanjong Layang, Tanjung Sepat in Banting between 8.30 pm and 9.45 pm on Aug 30 last year, face the mandatory death sentence upon conviction under Section 302 of the Penal Code.

The 71st prosecution witness said she was not informed of the total number of specimens when Dr Nurliza requested a radiology consultation on 31 x-ray images on Sept 22 last year.  

Manjeet then proceeded to cross-examine Dr Zaleha on her methods of investigation and conclusions on the specimens.

Examination with the naked eye

Manjeet: “You examined all the 31 x-rays?”

Dr Zaleha: “Yes.”

Manjeet: “Going by the court evidence, there were 2,040 specimens and you picked only 25?”  

Dr Zaleha: “Yes.”

Manjeet: “How did you examine the 25 objects?” and Dr Zaleha responded that it was done with the naked eye.

After which Manjeet continued, “And then you reached a conclusion that it was possibly human bones?”, to which the witness answered “yes”.

Manjeet: “You didn’t reach a conclusion based on radiology investigation on the other 2,015 objects?”

Dr Zaleha: “I informed Dr Nurliza I could not conclude they were human bone fragments.”  

When questioned as to whether she was familiar with animal bone structures, Dr Zaleha said she was not that knowledgeable on the subject.   

Further queried on whether she agreed that humans and animals shared the same bone structure terminology, the witness said some did, but not all terminology were shared.

The trial resumes before Judge Akhtar Tahir tomorrow.

- Bernama