KUALA LUMPUR: The fate of a housewife charged with abusing her Indonesian maid four years ago will be decided by the Sessions Court on Nov 27.
Judge Akhtar Tahir deferred decision Friday after hearing submissons from Yim Pek Ha’s counsel, Jagjit Singh and Akbardin Abd Kader, and deputy public prosecutor Raja Rozela Raja Toran, who is heading the prosecution team.
Yim is charged with four counts of voluntarily causing grievous hurt and hurt to Nirmala Bonat, 19, with a hot iron and hot water and a metal cup at her house at 33B256, Villa Putera, Jalan Tun Ismail here in January, March and April at at 3pm on May 17, 2004.
Yim, a former air stewardess and a mother of four children, was called to enter her defence on Jan 3.
The prosecution on Friday submitted that Yim was the only person who could have abused Nirmala with a hot iron, hot water and stainles steel mug, causing serious injuries to at her breasts, thighs and back.
Raja Rozela said there was no evidence to suggest that Nirmala was abused by someone else as Yim was the only person who constantly had direct contact with her at home during the material time.
There was no evidence adduced to suggest that Nirmala was living elsewhere or had any contact with any other person while she was working for Yim so the bare denial by the defence was not sufficient to cast a reasonable doubt on the prosecution’s case, she said.
Further, Yim was angry with Nirmala and had scolded her for various reasons from smelling bad to not doing the house chores properly, she added.
On the defence that the injuries on Nirmala were self-inflicted , Raja Nozela said no one saw Nirmala doing it and the maid had no reason whatsoever to inflict the injuries on herself.
On the defence claim that Nirmala had strange behaviour like banging her head on the wall, scratching her face, sleeping naked and biting her lips until they bled, she said: “It goes beyond comprehension that an employer would just sit back and watch the maid pulling stunts like Nirmala allegedly did, and not to do anything to prevent it.
“Any reasonable employer would not stop to think twice about keeping Nirmala as it was probably unsafe having a maid like her living under the same roof and with young children.”
Yim faces up to 20 years in jail and liability of a fine and caning if convicted of the grievous hurt charges while the causing hurt charge carries a seven-year jail term and a fine. - Bernama
