PUTRAJAYA, Aug 15 — A prisoner on death row for murdering his sister-in-law, who was also his lover, at a hotel in 2014 escaped the gallows today when the Federal Court commuted the death sentence with 32 years imprisonment and 12 strokes of the cane.
A three-judge panel led by Chief Justice Tun Tengku Maimun Tuan Mat allowed the application by a former food and beverage industry worker N. Kumaresan, 36, to replace the death penalty with imprisonment under the Revision of Sentence of Death and Imprisonment for Natural Life (Temporary Jurisdiction of the Federal Court) Act 2023.
Judge Tengku Maimun, sitting with Datuk Hanipah Farikullah and Datuk Vazeer Alam Mydin Meera, ordered the prison sentence to be served from the date of arrest, which was June 10, 2014.
On Feb 8, 2018, the Shah Alam High Court sentenced Kumaresan to death after finding him guilty of killing A. Sivasanggari, 22, in a hotel room in Petaling Jaya between 9pm on June 9, 2014 and on 10am the following day.
The sentence was upheld by the Court of Appeal and the Federal Court in 2019 and 2020, respectively.
Earlier, lawyer Abdul Rashid Ismail, representing Kumaresan, submitted that his client was involved in a triangle love affair with his sister-in-law, who insisted that he divorced his wife.
He said Kumaresan also requested to be given a second chance to return to the family.
Deputy Public Prosecutor Eyu Ghim Siang requested a prison sentence of between 34 and 36 years because the victim had been strangled and based on pathological evidence the victim’s hyoid bone was broken.
— Bernama
