GEORGE TOWN: A woman and her boyfriend were sentenced to death by the High Court here today after they were found guilty of murdering her five-year-old son and dumping the body at an oil palm estate in Bukit Mertajam.
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Gayathry Thansamy, 36, and Saravanan Kumar Rajan, 30, were handed down the sentence for the murder of Kaviarasan Sanjay.
They were charged with committing the offence at a house in Taman Keladi, Kulim, between Sept 20 and 27, 2014, under Section 302 of the Penal Code, which carries the death sentence.
Doctors had said Kaviarasan died due to blunt force trauma to the head.
Gayathry had first filed a missing person’s report claiming Kaviarasan had disappeared from the Esplanade grounds in George Town on Sept 20, 2014.
However, after questioning by police, she admitted that the boy had been beaten up and, in panic, she and Saravanan dumped the body at an oil palm estate in Bukit Mertajam.
During the trial, Gayathry blamed Saravanan for beating Kaviarasan to death with a leg of a chair.
Saravanan, in his defence, said he was not with Gayathry at the time of the incident on Sept 20, 2014, as he was working on night shift as a security guard. The next day, he said, he travelled to Klang to visit his parents.
In delivering his decision, Judicial Commissioner Ahmad Shahrir Mohd Salleh said the prosecution had proven its case beyond a reasonable doubt.
He said that when Gayathry lodged her police report claiming her son had gone missing, she could have told police her boyfriend had beaten up the boy, but did not do so.
Shahrir said she claimed Saravanan was waiting in a car while she made the report, but did not make any attempt to alert police about his wrongdoing.
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He also said it was highly unlikely that Gayathry would not have sprung into action to protect Kaviarasan if there had been a threat to his life.
Based on Gayathry’s own admission, he said, she did not stop Saravanan from beating up Kaviarasan.
Shahrir also said Saravanan’s claim that he was not present at the time of the incident was inadmissible, as he failed to give notice of his alibi under the Criminal Procedure Code.
In mitigation, Gayathry’s lawyer, Gabriel Susayan, said his client was a victim of domestic abuse and has suffered from hardship.
He said Gayathry regretted not doing anything to save her son and was remorseful.
Saravanan’s lawyer, V Parthipan, urged the court to reconsider his client’s plea, saying he was just a lorry driver turned security guard and a first-time offender.
Deputy public prosecutor Yasinnisa Begam Seeni Mohideen said beating a young child to death was a serious crime and showed how inhumane the two were for leaving the body to rot in the jungle.
Both lawyers said they would appeal against the decision.
Gayathry and Saravanan have spent six years in remand since they were charged in 2014. -FMT