The latest to be charged was S Gopinaath, 30, a contractor and an elder brother to one of the accused, Gokulan.

Police remanded Gopinaath for a day at the magistrates’ court in the morning. At 2.30pm, he was charged with murder at the sessions court.

He was charged with committing the offence at the Jalan Bunga Raya neighbourhood park in Bukit Gelugor between 11pm and midnight on June 9, 2017, with four others.

No plea was recorded as murder cases come under the jurisdiction of the High Court.

He nodded when the charge was read out to him before Manomani Ramanathan, acting as a magistrate.

Deputy public prosecutor (DPP) Farah Aimy Zainul Anwar told the court the case would be transferred to the High Court tomorrow morning.

The prosecution offered no bail as it was a murder charge. Gopinaath said a lawyer was representing him but was not present in court today.

Gopinaath’s charge follows court testimony by a key witness that he, too, had a part in bashing Nhaveen until he became unconscious.

Currently, four persons are charged with Nhaveen’s murder, with the murder trial already mid-way after it started in May.

In another development, the four accused of Nhaveen’s murder were also charged at the magistrates’ court today for causing grievous hurt to T Previin, 23.

Previin was with Nhaveen at the time of the incident and suffered a shattered cheekbone resulting from a beating with helmets allegedly by the four boys.

The accused – J Ragesuthan, 22, S Gokulan, 22, and two others who were juveniles at the time – have been charged with committing the offence near Karpal Singh Learning Centre, Jalan Kaki Bukit, Bukit Gelugor, between 11pm and midnight on June 9, 2017.

All four pleaded not guilty to the charge under Section 326 of the Penal Code.

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 an acquittal (DNAA) on Oct 2, 2018.

The new charge comes after Previin testified in the Nhaveen murder trial yesterday that he was left with a shattered cheekbone after being bashed by the accused with helmets.

After the new charge was read out, DPP Yazid Mustaqim Roslan told the court the prosecution intended to try the case together with Nhaveen’s murder trial.

He then requested the court to suspend the proceedings for the prosecution to obtain the go-ahead from the High Court to do so.

Yazid said under the Criminal Procedure Code (CPC), cases can be transferred considering the offence took place near the earlier murder offence. As such, a joint trial would suffice, he added.

He said this was allowed under Section 417 (1)(c), (cc) and (2) of the CPC.

Sessions court judge Manomani allowed the trial to be put on hold pending a decision by the High Court.

In moving the application to the High Court, DPP Noor Azura Zulkiflee said the prosecution wanted to try the case together as it involved the “same transaction and witnesses” as the murder trial.

Lawyer Yagoo Subramaniam, who represented the accused, had no objections over the joint trial application.

Judicial commissioner Mohd Radzi Abdul Hamid, the presiding judge in the murder trial, allowed the application.

He set tomorrow for the new charge of causing grievous hurt to Previin to be read at the High Court.