FOUR individuals, including a woman, were sentenced to 10 years’ imprisonment by the High Court on Tuesday after pleading guilty to causing the death of an insurance agent without intent, in an incident dating back four years.
Judge Rohani Ismail handed down the sentence after the four accused — S Jeeva, 55, M Raja, 39, P Yogan Pillay, 29, and M Bereamalah, 43 — admitted to an alternative charge under Section 304(a) of the Penal Code for culpable homicide not amounting to murder.
The court considered mitigation pleas from defence counsel and aggravating arguments from the prosecution before delivering the sentence. All four are to serve their prison terms from the dates of their arrests, which occurred between November and December 2021.
According to the charge, the accused caused the death of 52-year-old P Rajasegar between 10.30am on 12 November and 4.45pm on 2 December 2021, at an insurance company tower on Jalan Lintang.
They were initially charged under Section 302 of the Penal Code for murder but later allowed to plead to the lesser offence of culpable homicide under Section 304(a), read together with Section 34, which carries a maximum penalty of 30 years in prison and a fine.
Deputy Public Prosecutor Nor Baizura Mohd Saubian confirmed that the Attorney-General’s Chambers had accepted the representation submitted by the defence, which resulted in the charge being amended.
The defence team — comprising lawyers Fahmi Abdullah, G Subramaniam Nair, Daniel Selvam and Mohamed Baharudeen Mohamed Arif — requested leniency, arguing that the guilty pleas had saved the court’s time.
Fahmi, representing Jeeva, told the court that his client, a contractor and father of two, was eager to begin a new chapter in life. Subramaniam, who represented Bereamalah, said she was a single mother of two who had been caught “in the wrong place at the wrong time”.
“She has suffered emotional and mental trauma after being in remand for over three years,” he added.
According to the case facts, the victim’s wife, a 44-year-old insurance employee, lodged a police report on 12 November 2021 after failing to contact her husband. His abandoned car was discovered in Banting on 16 November.
Police investigations suggested extortion was involved, and Bereamalah was found to have sold the victim’s gold jewellery to a pawn shop in Klang. The three male suspects later led officers to separate locations in Gadong, Tanjung Sepat, Kuala Langat, where they claimed to have left the victim. - April 29, 2025
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