The High Court in Shah Alam was today told that a lawyer who represented a mechanic convicted of destroying evidence in the murder of Sosilawati Lawiya and three others, could not be traced.

Roslie Sulie, the lawyer who represented the mechanic K Sarawanan, was due to be called as a defence witness in today’s proceedings of the murder trial but the court was told the subpoena could not be delivered to him because his whereabouts were unknown.

S Baskaran, 30, a dispatch rider from the law firm of Hakem Arabi & Associates, said on Oct 11, 2012, he had gone to Roslie’s office located at a house in Jalan Kolam Ayer, Kuala Lumpur to hand over the suppoena but failed to do so.

“I saw there was no one at the house which was locked, so I placed the envelope containing the subpoena in the letter box,” said the 18th defence witness during  examination-in-chief by counsel Gurbachan Singh, who is representing T Thilaiyalagan, the second accused in the trial.

Former lawyer N Pathmanabhan and three farm workers, Thilaiyalagan, R Matan and R Kathavarayan who were charged with murdering Sosilawati, 47, bank officer Noorhisham Mohamad, 38, lawyer Ahmad Kamil Abdul Karim, 32, and Sosilawati’s driver Kamaruddin Shamsuddin, 44, have been ordered to enter their defence in the case.  

They are alleged to have committed the murders at Ladang Gadong, Lot 2001, Jalan Tanjong Layang, Tanjung Sepat in Banting between 8.30pm and 9.45pm on Aug 30, 2010 and have been charged under Section 302 of the Penal Code which carries the mandatory death sentence, if convicted.

Questioned by lawyer Manjeet Singh Dhillon, who is representing Pathmanabhan, Baskaran said he made two more attempts to deliver the subpoena at the same location on Dec 3, 2012 and March 5, 2013 respectively but failed as the office still remained closed.

Roslie and two other lawyers,  M Puravelan and Mohd Naguib Abdul Malik, had  represented Sarawanan and another farm worker, U Suresh. The duo were charged with four counts of destroying evidence related to the murders at the Telok Datok, Banting  on Oct 15, 2010.

Sarawanan, 22, and Suresh, 29, who are currently serving 20-year jail sentences each at the Sungai Udang Prison in Malacca, prior to this had been called as prosecution witnesses in the trial but were said to have turned hostile.

To another question from Gurbachan Singh, Baskaran said yesterday he had also gone to the Kuala Lumpur police headquarters to deliver a subpoena to ACP Abdul Aziz Zakaria but the officer decline to receive it.

“What did he (Abdul Aziz) say to you?” asked Gurbachan Singh.

‘I cannot sign, ask the lawyer to go to hell’

“He said he could not accept the subpoena because it was not a notice from a lawyer to give testimony in court. He said, “I cannot sign, ask the lawyer to go to hell... if you want to issue a warrant of arrest go ahead. I then handed it to his secretary,” replied Baskaran.

According to the document, Abdul Aziz was supposed to be present in court today.

Manjeet Singh then asked the court to issue a warrant of arrest against the officer for refusing to come to court.

“He had shown absolute disrespect to the court. With regards to Roslie, there was no evidence that the subpoena was served to him, so I hope that the media will publish a notice to say that he is needed in court. This is important following the events which took place at the Kuala Lumpur police headquarters,” he said.

Yesterday, another defence witness, N Kandasamy, 52, had testified that he had been called to the Kuala Lumpur police headquarters where he was persuaded to change lawyers to defend Sarawanan, who is his son.

He had planned to secure the services of lawyer AS Dhaliwal but was asked by a police officer by the name of Azlan to engage Roslie instead, who he (Kandasamy) claimed cheated him by saying his son would be acquitted.

Judge Akhtar Tahir agreed with Manjeet Singh that the media publish a notice to get Roslie to attend court next week and also ordered the prosecution to contact Abdul Aziz to come to court at 11am (today).

“A subpoena is a subpoena, why does he (Abdul Aziz) want a notice from the lawyers? If he has to fly here in a helicopter then he will have to,” said Akhtar.

However, when proceedings resumed at 11am the prosecution and defence teams were seen entering the judge’s chambers before coming out a few minutes later.

The media were then told that Abdul Aziz was hospitalised at the National Heart Institute.

Earlier, the defence’s 17th witness, C Gayathiri, assistant director at the Bar Council’s Membership Department, had confirmed that Roslie and Mohd Naguib were no longer practising lawyers. 

The hearing resumes on Monday.

- Bernama