Selangor Fire and Rescue Department investigating officer Abdul Halim Zulkefeli said he had also made a study to ascertain if such an incident had happened before but could not find one.
Halim, the 15th prosecution witness, told the High Court of his investigation of a fire that had broken out in the bedroom of Cradle Fund chief executive Nazrin Hassan on June 14, 2018.
He had asked Nazrin’s wife, Samirah Muzaffar, 44, about his mobile phone, he said.
He said Samirah told him Nazrin had many phones, including the BlackBerry, which led him to find out if a fire had occurred before as a result of a BlackBerry phone explosion.
“To my knowledge, there has been no fire involving a BlackBerry handphone,” he said in answer to a question by Selangor state prosecution director Salim Soib @ Hamid.
Halim said he used the Google search engine for his investigation.
Salim: You have investigated many fires. Are there fires caused by handphones or the telephone battery catching fire?
Halim: No.
Salim: You do not agree with the lawyer’s suggestion previously that said the handphone exploded?
Halim: Yes.
Showing Halim a photograph of the scene of the fire, Salim asked whether an exploding handphone would cause any trace or smudges on the wall.
The witness said the smudges were caused by the fire and not an exploding handphone.
If an explosion had occurred, he said, there could be pieces of shrapnel or things might be scattered but there was none of these in the room.
He also said the phone battery did not look like it had exploded.
Halim also told DPP Asyraf Ashy’ri Kamaruzzaman he did not agree with an animation film the defence had submitted because the positions of certain items in the film were not where he found them.
He said the film showed Nazrin’s handphone by his side whereas he found it at a different location.
He also said he could not find a power bank although the film showed the device on Nazrin’s bed.
“In my investigation of the victim’s mattress, there was no remnant of a power bank or any burnt handphone except for the BlackBerry,” he said.
On trial are Samirah, a former senior executive at Perbadanan Harta Intelek Malaysia, and two teenagers, aged 17 and 14.
They are charged with the murder of Nazrin, together with an Indonesian national, Eka Wahyu Lestari, who is at large, at a house at Mutiara Homes, Mutiara Damansara, between 11.30pm on June 13, 2018 and 4am the following day.
The charge, under Section 302 of the Penal Code and read together with Section 34 of the same Act, provides for the mandatory death sentence upon conviction.
The hearing before Justice Ab Karim Ab Rahman continues tomorrow.