Bangladeshi man's 20-year jail term upheld for butchering wife

Md Shahzada Saju's appeal for a lower imprisonment term was dismissed today by the court's three-member panel comprising Justices Datuk Vazeer Alam Mydin Meera, Datuk Ahmad Zaidi Ibrahim and Datuk S.M. Komathy Suppiah.

In delivering the court decision, Justice Vazeer said the 20-year jail sentence was appropriate based on the circumstances of the case where the killing was done in a gruesome manner.

He also said the High Court had not committed any error in imposing the 20 years' jail term and the appellate court did not want to disturb the sentence.

Md Shahzada, 42, a former waiter, was initially charged on Aug 7, 2018, with murdering Sajeda-E Bulbul, 29, also a Bangladeshi, in an unnumbered room, in Jalan Sultan Azlan Shah in Dang Wangi, Kuala Lumpur between 4.15 am on July 3 and 3.16 am on July 5, 2018.

Acting on information, police inspected the scene and found two luggage containing dismembered body parts of the woman by the riverbank of Sungai Gombak near Jalan Ipoh, Kuala Lumpur.

A post-mortem was conducted and confirmed that the woman's death was caused by an incised wound to the neck with decapitation. The police arrested Md Shahzada in Pengerang, Johor on July 25, 2018.

On May 26 last year, the High Court reduced Md Shahzada's murder charge to the charge of culpable homicide not amounting to murder at the end of the prosecution's case.

He pleaded guilty to the charge and was sentenced to 20 years in jail. He, however, appealed to the Court of Appeal to reduce his jail term.

The man was represented by lawyers Vijey Esvaren and M. Meera, while deputy public prosecutor Mohd Fuad Abdul Aziz acted for the prosecution.