The prosecution moved to add the charge after key witness T Previin, 23, told the trial of how he had been beaten up with helmets and had to have cheek reconstruction surgery with a bone graft from his pelvis.
The High Court then allowed a prosecutor’s request to suspend the trial for three months until the new charge is pressed against the same four accused.
In 2017, Previin was allegedly beaten up along with Nhaveen, who died later due to brain injury.
In asking for the trial to be suspended today, deputy public prosecutor Khairul Anuar Abdul Halim said the suspension of the murder trial was needed so the new charge would not prejudice the accused or the prosecutor.
He said such a suspension was allowed under Section 160 of the Criminal Procedure Code.
Khairul, the Penang prosecution director, said his office would now charge them with causing grievous hurt under Section 326 of the Penal Code at the sessions court.
For the record, the four had previously been charged with causing grievous hurt to Previin in the sessions court here on June 19, 2017 but they were given a discharge not amounting to acquittal or DNAA on Oct 2, 2018.
Khairul said that after the four are charged again, the prosecution will merge the cases to be tried together with the murder trial.
Judicial commissioner Mohd Radzi Abdul Hamid agreed to the request to suspend the trial.
He told the prosecution to formally apply to consolidate the new charge with the murder trial on Friday, so as to allow the case to be tried together.
“To ensure the trial is not interrupted longer than it should, I order the prosecution to settle this new charge this week and bring it to the High Court for mention on Friday,” he said.
Radzi then set March 8 and 9 to resume the murder trial. Later, Khairul told FMT that the four accused will face the new charge tomorrow at the sessions court.
Shoe, broken helmet visors picked up from drain
Earlier this morning, Previin told the prosecution about how a man had directed him to call an “Inspector Elangovan” and meet him at the Jelutong police station.
He said he then went to the police station to lodge a police report. He said an investigating officer called “Inspector Chiam” later brought him to the crime scene in Bukit Gelugor.
Previin said that when he arrived, he was asked to sit “in one corner” as officers picked up broken pieces of helmet visors and later, his shoes in a drain. He felt the items were dumped by the assailants there.
He said he then tried to see Nhaveen at the Penang Hospital, but was not allowed to go in as he was in intensive care.
Previin said he only had a chance to see Nhaveen only when he was admitted to the hospital for surgery on his face.
“I was in my patient gown and I walked from my ward to the ICU. Nhaveen was just lying there motionless. That was the last time I saw him before he died,” he said.
‘I could have lost my eye without surgery’
Previin said he was admitted to the hospital after the swelling on his face would not subside. He said the bump on his face was due to the beating he got from the accused, who used helmets.
He said doctors said he had suffered from a shattered right cheekbone.
“The doctors told me that if I do not do the surgery, my eye would have fallen off,” he said, adding that he had to have bone grafted from his pelvis to reconstruct his cheekbone.
At this point, the prosecutor interrupted his testimony to move for the application to charge the accused with causing grievous hurt against Previin.
J Ragesuthan, 18, S Gokulan, 18 and two others have been charged with the murder of Nhaveen. The other two unnamed persons were juveniles when they were charged.
They are accused of murdering Nhaveen near the Karpal Singh Learning Centre, Jalan Kaki Bukit, Bukit Gelugor, between 11pm and midnight.
Mohd Amril Johari, Noor Azura Zulkiflee and Yazid Mustaqim Roslan also prosecuted.
Sukhindarpal Singh held a watching brief for the Bar Council. Arun Ganesh Boopalan held a watching brief for Nhaveen’s family.