‘Datuk’ among six people charged with making false claims

SHAH ALAM: A former general manager of Panasonic Appliances Air-Conditioning Malaysia Sdn Bhd, who has the title “Datuk” , and five others are charged in the Sessions Court yesterday with making false claims, amounting to more than RM500,000, in transportation cost.

Datuk R. Shanmugam, 46, Yap Siew Hiong (she), 46, P. Sugumaran, 50, C. Karuppiah, 41, V. Murugesu, 55, and M. Kanesan, 38, however, pleaded not guilty to the charges before judge Adli Abd Ghalib.

Shanmugam faced a total of 93 charges, including 46 charges where he was jointly charged with Yap and Sugumaran, 19 joint charges with Karuppiah, 18 joint charges with Kanesan and seven joint charges with Murugesu.

All the charges were for allegedly cheating the staff and officers of Panasonic Appliances AirConditioning Malaysia by making them believed that the claims were genuine.

The five companies involved were Teguh Marine Inspection (M) Sdn Bhd, WLS Container Lines (M) Sdn Bhd, Green Valleys Resources, Tiban Enterprise and Pandan Cerah Sdn Bhd.

The action prompted Panasonic Appliances Air-Conditioning Malaysia to hand over RM505,750 to the companies concerned as payment for the claims, whereby the company would not have done so if it had not been deceived into doing it.

The offences were allegedly committed at Lot 2, Persiaran Tengku Ampuan Seksyen 21, Shah Alam Industrial Site here between April 17, 2008 and May 15, 2014.

The charges were made under Section 420 of the Penal Code, which provides an imprisonment for up to 10 years and fine and whipping, if found guilty.

Yap is general manager of WLS Container Lines, while Sugumaran, its managing director, while Karuppiah is Green Valleys Resources manager, Kanesan (Pandan Cerahdirector) and Murugesu is an employee of a company which provides transportation service to Panasonic Appliances Air-Conditioning Malaysia.

All of them were released on bail of RM93,000 on all charges for Shanmugam, Yap (RM46,000), Sugumaran (RM23,000), Karuppiah (RM15,200), Murugesu (RM14,400) Kanesan (RM5,6000).

The court set March 26 for mention.

The prosecution was conducted by deputy public prosecutor Rizal Azani Zainal Adzam, while Shanmugam, Yap, Sugumaran, Karuppiah and Kanesan were represented by lawyers Hasshahari Johari Mawi and Mohamad Fuad Md Hussain, and lawyer Purshotaman Puvanendran represented Murugesu. - Bernama