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Van driver charged with rapes in 3 separate courtrooms

2010/08/05
Jennifer Gomez



V. Tiagarajan being led away from the Sessions Court in Petaling Jaya yesterday. -- PHOTO: NST

PETALING JAYA: It took a total of seven hours in three different courtrooms here for school van driver V. Tiagarajan to be charged with two rape offences and for inciting a child to an act of gross indecency. At the end of the day, the 51-year-old was denied bail as he was alleged to have raped a nine-year-old girl who was living in the same house as him.

Tiagarajan, dressed in a blue and white shirt and grey pants, was brought to the sessions court here at 9am today, and when the charge of raping a nine-year-old girl in a van in Jalan Othman on July 26 was read out to him in Bahasa Malaysia, he pleaded guilty.

This prompted sessions judge Rozina Ayob to ask the court interpreter to read him the charge in Tamil, and this time, the accused appeared not to understand. The judge then adjourned the matter for a short period. When court resumed, Tiagarajan’s family had appointed him a defence counsel, and when the charge was read out to him for a third time, then in Tamil, he pleaded not guilty.

DPP Shah Rizal Abdul Manan said the prosecution did not want to offer bail as the victim and the accused lived in the same neighbourhood. “The accused stays in Taman Medan while the victim stays in Kg Muniandy. We are concerned that he will disturb the victim,” Shah Rizal said. Defence counsel Lim Sha Lee told the court that being concerned was not sufficient grounds to deny the accused bail.

She added that Tiagarajan promised to stay away from the victim and that he planned to move away from his home in Taman Medam to another home in Taman Kinrara in Puchong. “He has also stopped working as a van driver since he was arrested and would be looking for another job,” she said, adding that Tiagarajan had three children.

Lim also said that she could produce two bailors for Tiagarajan - his wife and his sister. The court then allowed bail of RM15,000 with two sureties and imposed an additional condition for the accused to report to the nearest police station once a month and for him not to disturb the victim, her family, or any of the witnesses in the case.

Rozina also said she would be issuing an order to the Immigration Department that the accused was not allowed to leave the country until the disposal of the case. Tiagarajan, was then taken to another sessions court where he claimed trial to raping another nine-year-old girl. He was alleged to have committed the offence at his house in Jalan PJS 3/52 near here sometime in 2009.

Shah Rizal again asked the court not to allow bail as the accused and the victim in this case stayed at the same house. Sessions judge Balqis Aini Mohd Ali then asked Tiagarajan’s wife to come forward. The wife, who introduced herself to the court as Ratnama, informed the court that the alleged victim in this case was her niece.

She told the court that she had been taking care of her niece since her sister (the niece’s mother) passed away when the girl was six years old. Lim said that the accused was willing to stay away from the niece by moving into his other home in Taman Kinrara. The judge after a brief stand down, denied Tiagarajan bail, until he could show that he was staying at another location with proof of a permanent address.

Tiagarajan was then taken to the magistrate’s court where he pleaded not guilty to inciting a nine-year-old child to an act of gross indecency. The victim in this case is the same one named in the second rape charge. He is alleged to have committed this offence at his house in 2009. Shah Rizal asked the court to deny Tiagarajan bail as he lived at the same address with the victim. He also informed the court that Tiagarajan had been charged with two counts of rape.

Magistrate Aishah Hijriah Arshad then fixed bail at RM8,000 with one surety and ordered the accused to report to the nearest police station by the third of each month. She also ordered the accused not to disturb the victim. The courts fixed Sept 7 for mention for all three cases. If found guilty of rape, Tiagarajan faces a minimum jail of five years and a maximum imprisonment of 30 years while for the charge of inciting a child to an act of gross indecency, he faces a maximum jail sentence of five years and can be caned, if found guilty.