Sosilawati case: "I did not suggest lawyer to them"

Kuala Lumpur CID deputy chief ACP Abdul Aziz Zakaria said, he did not suggest to K. Sarawanan and U. Suresh, who were charged in the Telok Datok Magistrate's Court in Banting on Oct 15, 2010, with four counts of disposing evidence of the alleged murders, to engage Roslie Sulie as their counsel.

Sarawanan, 22, and Suresh, 29, who are currently serving 20 years' jail at Sungai Udang prison in Melaka after pleading guilty to all four charges, were represented in the case by Roslie and two other lawyers, M. Puravelan and Mohd Naguib Abdul Malik.

Abdul Aziz, under cross-examination by first accused N. Pathmanabhan's counsel Manjeet Singh Dhillon, said when Roslie and Mohd Naguib came to see him at the Kuala Lumpur police headquarters contingent on Oct 10, 2010, they did not talk about the alleged murders.

Manjeet Singh: "In your Jan 6, 2011 affidavit, you said Roslie did ask about the case which had drawn public interest, and you told him that Sarawanan and Suresh did not have a lawyer to represent them.

"Is it your job to discuss with the lawyer about a case which has not been brought to court?" Abdul Aziz said "I never uttered such thing. The subpoena was received by my personal assistant."

S. Baskaran, a despatcher with Hakem Arabi & Associates, in his testimony as the 18th defence witness, said he handed the subpoena to Abdul Aziz but the latter refused to take it and told him to "pergi mampus" which means ‘go to hell’.

To another question by Manjeet Singh, Abdul Aziz said during the meeting between Roslie, Sarawanan and Suresh on Oct 10, 2010, a detective corporal, Sri Hari Ramachandran, had acted as their interpreter.

However, Sri Hari in his testimony denied being the interpreter for Roslie and the other two, claiming he was outside the room during the meeting which lasted for about an hour.