Authors: Alex Josey
They brought me towards the gate and asked
me to lie down and when I did not do so they pushed me down and when I tried to
get up the man with the crash helmet continued to hit me.
After this I could only remember when the
police vehicle took me to hospital. When I was in hospital I began to experience
something which I have never experienced in my whole life. I could hear people
asking me questions. I could remember answering some questions. The next
morning I remember going back to Klang with Brian and James Ritchie. I
categorically deny that I told anyone of them I was getting married to Jean on
the 13th. Looking back from now, my Lord, I could have said all our plans of
moving house before April 13 were shattered. I could have just mumbled these
words.
I attended the funeral and the feast in
Kajang and it was on that day that I met Jayatilake but I have heard of his
name mentioned by Mrs Perera (Jean’s mother) many times when I visited her in
1978 and 1979. Jean also mentioned his name and I was warned to be careful in
my association with him.
During the feast after the funeral, this
Jayatilake came and talked very kindly to me and asked me to drink beer with
him, but I told him it was a tradition in our family if anyone close passes
away we go vegetarian for 31 days and abstain from taking any alcohol. Then on
April 16, this Jayatilake came earlier than the detective. The detective told
me that a police officer was coming to see me in the house that evening. After
about 10 minutes the detective asked permission to use the phone. He told me the
officer who was supposed to come was not in. Therefore he left. Jayatilake then
told me his purpose in coming to see me. He wanted me to stand surety for a
$3,000 loan that he wanted to take from MCIS. I told him I was not a member of
MCIS, (Malaysian Co-operative Insurance Society) but he told me he would pay
the entrance fee and two months’ subscription and all I had to do was to sign
the form. I hesitated at first thinking of what Jean and her mother had told me
about him but he looked very pathetic and desperate so I signed the form. He
gave me some Coates Brothers diaries.
As soon as he left I rang up Mrs Perera
(Jean’s mother) in Kajang and told her what I had done for Jayatilake, and Mrs
Perera told me that I was a fool for having signed the form because Jayatilake
was owing money everywhere and that he would not hesitate to put anybody into
trouble. I categorically deny having uttered all that Jayatilake alleged that I
had uttered.
As far as I am concerned Jayatilake is a
total stranger to me and that was the first time he had come to my house. I
treated him decently and obliged by signing the loan form.
On 13 April, my Lord, a police party came to
my house which included ASP Ramli, DSP Cornelius and a few detectives and they
inspected the room where Jean was staying. They took possession of many of her
belongings including the love letters from Dr Narada. I saw these letters for
the first time together with ASP Ramli and DSP Cornelius. I therefore
categorically deny, My Lord, that I took 15–16 letters to Kajang and showed
them to Brian and his mother in December 1978. In fact on the 13th evening when
I went to Kajang with my mother to attend the prayer service for Jean, I told
Brian about the police findings. Brian then invited me out to a coffee shop to
talk in more detail about these letters as there were many visitors in the
house then. I was however unable to give him much detail because ASP Ramli did
not allow me to read them. And when we came back from the coffee shop, Brian’s
mother asked me what the secret was between me and Brian, and after some
hesitation when I told her about it, Mrs Perera asked me why I had not
destroyed the letters, why I had not made a search of the room before the
police arrived and destroyed all such material because they would subsequently
cause a lot of embarrassment for our families. Therefore, My Lord, I had no
knowledge of Jean’s intimate love for Dr Narada before 13 April 1979.”
Continuing his statement from the dock,
Karthigesu said he was arrested on April 26 and was kept at Petaling Jaya
police station where he was subjected to interrogation and also given much
information by the police about Jean. “They told me that Jean was unfaithful to
me. They told me she was unfaithful to many other men. They told me she was
even unfaithful to my brother and they subjected me to all forms of humiliation
and they drummed into my mind that there was a name which I should be able to
recall, that I was having a mental block and that this would come out if I
subjected myself to narco-analysis. They told me if I agreed willingly to
narco-analysis that it would be a strong point for me for showing cooperation
with the police. My Lord, in my own studies I know a little bit about
narco-analysis, and this little bit unfortunately is about the ill-effects of
narco-analysis. I was unable to make up my mind and I was constantly reminded
that I could remember a name and that I should remember and that if I go
through with the narco-analysis I am cooperating with the police.”
Karthigesu said he told the police officers,
especially DSP Godwin Anthony and DSP Cornelius, to allow him to speak to
either Mr Ponnudurai or his friend Dr Chan Hong Leng, but he never got the
privilege.
On May 3 he was taken to see Professor G.
Devadass by ASP Ramli, DSP Godwin and a detective. “I explained to Professor
Devadass the humiliations and torture that I was undergoing and told him all
the police had told me about Jean. I did not tell the professor that I had
consulted Mr Ponnudurai and Dr Chan. I told him that I had asked for police
permission to meet either of them in relation to the narco-analysis. I did not
tell the professor that Jean was unfaithful to my brother, but I told him the
police are telling me things to this effect.
“I complained to the professor about the
treatment I was getting from the police. He was just listening to me.”
At the trial, ASP Ramli said Dr Warnasurya
checked into the YMCA at 2:30
pm
on 2 September 1978 and left at 8:00
am
on 16th September. On 5 September at 9:50
am
Jean checked in and
checked out at 1:00
pm
the
following day.
ASP Ramli told the Court that on 9 June 1979
he and Inspector Henry Yap took a Royal Malaysian Navy team to Port Klang to search
for clothes and weapons.
Earlier, Mr Ponnudurai objected to the
prosecution introducing a psychiatrist’s report on Karthigesu on the grounds
that it was very prejudicial and damaging to the accused. He said this was a
jury trial and members of the jury should not see the report until the person
who made the report, Professor Devadass, a consultant psychiatrist at
University Hospital, had given evidence.
Judge Azmi over-ruled the objection.
ASP Ramli read extracts from a letter dated
11 October 1978 which Jean had written to the Sri Lankan doctor, but which had
never been posted. Jean confessed that ‘the one and only reason why I cannot
marry you is because I really and truly love my brother-in-law. Please don’t be
shocked when I state that in retrospect I can say I care for him more than I
did care for my late husband.’
The DPP argued that Karthigesu washed
himself at a pond nearby after killing Jean. Then the accused went back to the
road and waited for passing vehicles. As soon as he saw one he lay down on the
ground ‘hoping to be seen and taken to hospital where he could pull a yarn.’
The DPP said this could be supported in the evidence by police dog handler,
Corporal K. Ramakrishnan who told the court his dog Keris traced the scent to
the pool and back to the road. That Karthigesu had lain down on the ground each
time he saw a vehicle was supported in the evidence of witnesses who said they
saw his stomach heaving up and down. Counsel said this would not have happened
if he had been unconscious, as Karthigesu claimed he was.
Mr Sambanthamurthi said Karthigesu had told
a highly improbable story to consultant psychiatrist, Professor Devadass. He
said he had stopped his car near the underpass leading to the Subang airport
when four people drove up in a car, ‘and they ruffled’. “If the accused is to
be believed, then it seems the four people were waiting for him, knowing that
he will stop his car there, waiting there to kill Jean. If the accused is to be
believed how did the four men know that Jean was in the car, and that Jean
would stop at that spot? This is a highly improbable story. Why should anyone
want to kill Jean? The whole of the prosecution case is that Karthigesu was
pretending from the start, right from the killing.”
The DPP said that Karthigesu had found out
that Jean had stayed with the doctor at the Apollo Hotel. It was clear that
Karthigesu had questioned Jean about Dr Narada’s love letters. Hatred and
jealousy. Why had Karthigesu chosen April 1979 to kill Jean? The DPP said
Karthigesu was obsessed by the thought that Jean was going to meet Dr
Warnasurya in Sri Lanka or that he would be coming to Singapore where they
could meet. By this time, the DPP said, Karthigesu was ‘already raving mad’
but, being a psychologist he continued to pretend being good to Jean.
Karthigesu went to Subang Airport to pick up Jean and her sister when they
returned from Thailand and took them to Kajang. Karthigesu continued to allow
Jean to live with him in Klang, and, because he loved the children, he had to
close one eye over the matter.
The DPP pointed to inconsistencies in
Karthigesu’s account of what happened at the scene of the crime. Karthigesu
told journalist, James Ritchie, Brian Perera and Dr Balakrishnan he was hit on
the head while he was urinating, and became unconscious. He told two others—Dr
Yahya Sofi and staff nurse Goh Poh Yin—he was hit when he wanted to urinate.
And to Professor Devadass, Karthigesu said he had stopped the car to urinate
when another car pulled up and four men appeared. He was held up and ruffled
and forced to see the killing. He was then dragged on the ground and when he
noticed the car number he was knocked on the head. As the sand found on the
seat of the car was not identical to the sand found at the place where the car
was parked, this ruled out the involvement of a third person.
The
trial began in the High Court,
Malaysia, on 16 June
1980, Justice Mohammed Azmi sitting with a jury.
The first witness was ASP Ramli Yusof,
senior investigating officer at the Petaling Jaya police station. After
midnight on 6th April 1979 he was summoned to the scene by a telephone call
from a police constable. When he got there he found the bonnet of the car warm.
ASP Ramli said Jean was wearing a blue
flowered sari with a yellow base. She was covered with blood from several
wounds in her chest, neck and hands. Her body was tilted towards the left door.
Her hair was crumpled. Her right palm was over her left palm on her lap. ASP
Ramli told the Court that he could see nine injuries: two in her throat, two on
the right side of the chest, four on the right forearm, and one in the left
hand. On the back seat was a handbag which appeared to be made of crocodile
skin. In the bag he found among other items a chain with a lock on which was
inscribed ‘With all my love’.
ASP Ramli said he found bloodstains on the
windscreen in front of the passenger’s seat, the front passenger’s floor
boards, the rear floor board, the rear floor board between the front passenger
seat, and the left front door. He did not however find any blood-stains on the
driver’s seat, the gear box and handle, the foot pedal or the steering wheel.
He found no finger prints anywhere. There was a smearing of blood outside the
driver’s door. In his opinion this had been done deliberately.
Later, about 2:30
am
he went to the Emergency Room at the University Hospital,
where he saw Karthigesu. Karthigesu was lying on a trolley. Karthigesu did not
speak to him or answer any of his questions. Karthigesu kept murmuring to
himself and ASP Ramli thought he was drunk. He tried to pull him to his feet
but could not do so because Karthigesu was lying stiff. With the help of a
nurse ASP Ramli took possession of Karthigesu’s clothing and shoes.
ASP Ramli told the Court that on 13 April
1979, he took Karthigesu and a police party to Karthigesu’s house at Jalan
Solok Pulai, off Jalan Telok Pulai. In the wardrobe in the room where Jean
stayed Ramli said he found 19 letters in two handbags. They were letters from
Dr Narada Warnasurya, alias Digagamini, from Colombo, Sri Lanka. There were no
love letters from Karthigesu but there were four from Jean to him.
ASP Ramli said on 7 April he attended a post
mortem conducted on Jean by a pathologist, Dr R. Krishnan. Professor Eric
Sumitran was also present. Dr Krishnan gave him four articles belonging to
Jean—a bloodstained blouse with two holes, a bloodstained sari, a bloodstained
brassiere with a hole in the right cup, and a bloodstained slip. During the
afternoon that day together with constable Sulong and photographer Othman Din
he lifted fingerprints from the car in which the murder was committed. Apart
from one (not Karthigesu’s), all prints were inconclusive.
ASP Ramli said he arrested Karthigesu at
11:00
pm
on 26 April at the
police station. Three days later he took Karthigesu to a house in Jalan Mewa,
Petaling Jaya, which Jean had planned to rent. He asked him to show the spot
where he had parked his car on the evening on 6 April.
ASP Ramli read extracts from the letters
from Dr Narada Warnasurya to Jean. In one of the letters written on 11 October
1978 from the YMCA Hostel in Bangkok, he wrote about their proposed meeting
planned for December. He said that perhaps April 1979 would be more realistic.
The letter continued. “But if both of us feel the hunger to be unbearable, let
us risk it in December.”