00:00The Court of Appeal on Monday overturned the acquittal of four men charged with the murder
00:06of T. Naveen seven years ago.
00:09The four individuals, 26-year-olds J. Raghasutan and S. Gokulan, and two individuals who were
00:15juveniles at the time of the incident, have been ordered to enter their defence in relation
00:19to the charge.
00:21The three-judge panel led by Justice Datuk J. Muhammad Ruzima Ghazali also ordered the
00:26four to enter their defence on a charge of causing grievous hurt to Naveen's friend T.
00:31Previan.
00:33The appellate court had allowed the prosecution's appeal to overturn the High Court's decision.
00:38In the Court's unanimous decision, Justice J. Muhammad Ruzima said there was sufficient
00:43evidence to establish a prima facie case against the four men, and remitted the case back to
00:49the Penang High Court for the four men to enter their defence and ordered all four men
00:54to be remanded pending trial.
00:56Meanwhile, the same panel upheld the acquittal of 34-year-old S. Gopinath, who had been charged
01:02in 2021, four years after the incident, while the trial was ongoing.
01:07The prosecution had appealed against the High Court's decision in October 2023 that had
01:13acquitted and discharged the five of them for Naveen's murder without their defence being
01:18called.
01:19They had been accused of murdering Naveen, then 18, at a park on June 9, 2017.
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