19 charged under SOSMA as members of 'Sakai Gang' organised crime group
Bernama
July 13, 2021 20:15 MYT
July 13, 2021 20:15 MYT
A total of 19 men were charged in the Sessions Court today for being part of an organised crime group known as the Sakai Gang. - BERNAMA
KUALA LUMPUR: A total of 19 men were charged in the Sessions Court here today for being part of an organised crime group known as the Sakai Gang between January 2015 and June 2021.
They include Rosli Sahak (believed to be the leader of the group named Sakai), A. Ravindran, A. Uthayakumar, S. Sathiaseelan, T. Kumar, A. Kumaresan, N. Tanasilan, Thirumal Raj, M. Darshan, A. Dineswaran, S. Mohanraj and R. Nantha Kumar.
The others are S. Gobinath, M. Ravishankar, M. Thinesh, N. Tannish, S. Sagadevan, Mohamad Faisal Mohamad Sharif and G. Sivanamtham.
No pleas were recorded from all the accused, aged between 18 and 47, after the charges were read out separately as they were arrested under the Security Offences (Special Measures) Act 2012 (SOSMA) and cases under SOSMA are heard at the High Court.
According to the charges, they allegedly became members of the Sakai Gang at Sri Selangor flats here between January 2015 and June 2021.
They are charged under Section 130V (1) of the Penal Code, which provides for a jail term of up to 20 years on conviction.
The prosecution team comprises deputy public procecutors Mohd Farhan Aliff Ahmad, Nur Ainaa Ridzwan, Maryam Jamielah Manaff and Rajdeep Singh Bhupinder Singh while 17 of the accused are represented by lawyers Datuk Geethan Ram Vincent, T. Harpal Singh, Jay Moy Wei Jiun, Wan Zaleha Abdul Wahab, P. Taneswaran and K. Komagan and another two are unrepresented.
Harpal had earlier applied for bail for two of his clients (Rosli and Mohamad Faisal) on the basis that Section 13 of SOSMA was unconstitutional, and his application was supported by the other lawyers.
Maryam Jamielah, however, objected to the application, stating that bail did not apply to offences under SOSMA.
Judge M. M. Edwin Paramjothy set Aug 6 for case mention and to decide on the bail application by the defence.
Bernama had previously reported that police had smashed an organised crime group named Sakai Gang with the arrest of 24 suspects, including the gang leader and a 14-year-old teenager, in a joint operation in Perak, Melaka, Negeri Sembilan, Terengganu and Kuala Lumpur.
-- BERNAMA