PETALING JAYA - IT TOOK seven hours and three courtrooms here for school van driver V. Tiagarajan to be charged with two rape offences and for inciting a child to perform an act of gross indecency on Thursday.
At the end of the day, the 51-year-old was remanded after he failed to obtain bail in one of the cases -- the alleged rape of a nine-year-old girl who lived with him, reported The New Straits Times.
Tiagarajan pleaded guilty to raping the girl in a van in Jalan Othman on July 26, when the charge was read to him in Malay.
But when the charge was read to him in Tamil, he appeared not to understand, said the NST. Sessions Court judge Rozina Ayob then adjourned the proceedings briefly.
When court resumed, Tiagarajan's family had appointed him a counsel, and this time, when the charge was read to him for a third time in Tamil, he pleaded not guilty.
Deputy public prosecutor Shah Rizal Abdul Manan said the prosecution did not want bail to be offered as the victim and the man lived in the same neighbourhood.
Defence counsel Lim Sha Lee said she could produce two bailors for Tiagarajan -- his wife and his sister. The judge then allowed bail of RM15,000 in two sureties and imposed an additional condition for the accused to report to the nearest police station once a month and for him not to disturb the victim, her family, or any of the witnesses in the case.
The accused was also not allowed to leave the country until the case was over.
Tiagarajan was then taken to another Sessions Court where he claimed trial to a charge of raping another nine-year-old girl.He is alleged to have committed the offence at his house last year.
Tiagarajan's wife, who was in court, was asked by the judge to come forward. The woman, who introduced herself to the court as Ratnama, said the alleged victim in this case was her niece.
She said she had been taking care of the girl since her sister (the niece's mother) died when the girl was six years old. The judge, after a brief recess, denied Tiagarajan bail until he could show that he was staying at another location with proof of a permanent address.
Tiagarajan was then taken to the magistrate's court here where he pleaded not guilty to inciting a nine-year-old child to an act of gross indecency. The victim in this case is the same girl named in the second rape charge.He is alleged to have committed this offence at his house last year.
The courts fixed Sept 7 for mention of all three cases.
If found guilty of rape, Tiagarajan faces a jail term of five to 30 years. For the charge of inciting a child to an act of gross indecency, he faces a maximum jail sentence of five years and may be caned.
Source:New Straits Times
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