A businessperson was charged as the principal offender at the Sessions Court today, for a US$300,000 (RM953,580) gang robbery of three Singaporeans at the KL International Airport (KLIA) in September.     

T Sritharan, 32, pleaded not guilty to the six principal and three alternative charges pressed against him under the Penal Code.   

He was jointly charged with D Nagarajan, who is still at large, with three principal charges of robbing US$100,000 apiece from Hameed Saadik Batcha, Abd Rahman Maricar and Zakkariya Mohamed Shatik.

He allegedly committed the offence in a men’s toilet on the 1st floor of the KLIA Satellite Building at 11.25pm on Sept 15.   

The rest of the principal charges, involved Sritharan introducing himself as an officer of the Malaysian Anti Corruption Commission (MACC) to the three victims at KLIA, at 11pm the same day.

He was further charged with three alternative charges of impersonating an MACC officer at the same time and place.

He faces a range of sentences from up to 10 years or up to 20 years imprisonment, caning or fine, upon conviction for the various offences under the Penal Code.

Judge Wan Mohd Norisham Wan Yaacob set bail at RM70,000 with one surety and ordered Sritharan’s passport to be impounded.

He was banned from travelling to East Malaysia and ordered to report once a month to the nearest police station.  

The judge allowed a joint trial application by DPP Nadia Hanim Mohd Tajuddin to try Sritharan’s case with the three MACC officers charged on Oct 7 for the same offence.    

The accused was represented by R Vijayan and remention was fixed for Dec 6.

- Bernama