PUTRAJAYA – A man who was sentenced to death in 2021 for killing his wife and 7-month-old daughter has had his sentence reduced to 20 years in jail.
The Court of Appeal bench – Datuk Vazeer Alam Mydin Meera, Datuk Ahmad Zaidi Ibrahim and Datuk S.M Komathy – unanimously revised P.S. Satvender Singh’s sentence today.
They ordered the jail term to begin from the date of his arrest, which was April 14, 2016.
The bench also acquitted the former lorry driver from the charge of murdering his daughter, who was 7-months old at the time of her death in 2016.
The acquittal was based on the testimony of pathologist Dr Shahidan Md Noor during the trial at Shah Alam High Court, where he said there was irrefutable evidence that there was milk in the baby’s lungs.
“The pathologist could not explain the (presence of) milk in the lungs. However, he acknowledged that the baby could have died from choking on milk, or being smothered by a pillow.
“The pathologist was unable to express any reliable opinion on the cause of death. Due to the unclear evidence as to the cause of death, the benefit of the doubt must be given to the accused.
“Therefore, the conviction is set aside,” Komathy said when delivering the panel’s verdict.
Satvender, 37, was appealing against the guilty convictions and death penalty meted out by Shah Alam High Court judge Datuk Mohd Yazid Mustafa on August 19, 2021.
Yazid found Satvender guilty of murdering his wife D. Kamaljit, and their baby daughter Ishylyn Kaur on April 14, 2016. He was convicted and sentenced under Section 302 of the Penal Code which carries the death penalty.
According to the facts of the case, the pathologist confirmed that Kamaljit had died from being strangled (asphyxia due to manual strangulation), while the baby died due to suffocation (asphyxia due to airways obstruction).
The pathologist, during the post-mortem, also found defensive wounds on Kamaljit’s hands.
During investigation, police found that the accused’s house seems to be broken into, and that the crime scene looked like there might have been a robbery with the discovery of a cut padlock.
However, during trial, investigating officer Inspector Shahfaezal Al Azad Rahmatullah testified there was no way the house could be broken into, as the padlock was locked from inside the house, and the doors could not be broken from outside.
Following this, the high court ruled that the crime scene was staged by the accused to make it look like a scene of a robbery.
Kamaljit’s mother Pajen Kaur also testified that she had seen the accused berated, verbally and physically abused, and strangling her late daughter.
Therefore, in today’s proceeding, judge Komathy noted the evidence that the accused was the last person to have seen both his late wife and daughter alive, and that when he was called to enter defence in Shah Alam High Court, the judge did not specify which “ingredient” of prosecution that he needed to defend himself against.
“(Therefore) it would not be safe to affirm the accused’s conviction for a murder under Section 302 of the Penal Code.
“Having reviewed the evidence in this case, we find that there is overwhelming evidence that shows the accused had strangled the deceased and caused her death.
“The deceased internal neck injury could have only been caused by the application of significant or severe force. This shows that the appellant has intended to inflict bodily injury on the deceased, and the injury was sufficient in the ordinary cause of nature, to cause death.
“In the exercise of the appellate powers to set aside conviction and sentence, we find the accused guilty of a lesser charge (that is) culpable homicide not amounting to a murder, and convict him to a reduced charge under Section 304A of the Penal Code.”
Section 304A carries punishment of maximum thirty years imprisonment and fine upon conviction.
During mitigation, Datuk Rajpal Singh, who appeared for the Satvender, told the court that the accused is remorseful and appealing for the court to order 10 years imprisonment that would begin from the date of his arrest.
He also deemed that the offence was not considered a gruesome murder as there were no multiple stabbings to the deceased abdomen or so.
However, deputy public prosecutor Nahra Dollah told the court that the deceased died at the hands of her husband without mercy, which is deemed a serious offence and she was suggesting for the court to order a jail term of more than 20 years.
After brief consideration, judge Vazeer delivered the unanimous decision for the accused to be jailed for 20 years, taking into consideration the accused and deceased’s relationship, and prosecution’s evidence that the accused had staged the crime scene. – November 30, 2023