KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 27 — Rumah Bonda founder Siti Bainun Ahd Razali today admitted she had asked for the best medicine at a pharmacy to treat the burns on the hand of a teenager with Down syndrome known as Bella.

Siti Bainun, 31, said she inquired about the medicine with a pharmacist through WhatsApp and informed the individual about Bella’s badly burned hand.

Siti Bainun said this during cross-examination by deputy public prosecutor Shakira Aliana Alias at the defence trial of the woman who was accused of neglecting and abusing the 13-year-old girl in the Sessions Court here.

However, Siti Bainun did not agree with Shakira Aliana’s suggestion that Bella was only treated at home and the accused went to the pharmacy because she wanted to hide the teenage girl’s wounds.

Shakira Aliana: I said you knew Bella was badly hurt and needed to be taken to the clinic, but you didn’t because you were afraid of what you did to Bella being exposed?

Siti Bainun: Disagree.

The accused also denied that Bella was looked after by a former resident of Rumah Bonda, Yasmin Nahar Mahmood (the fifth prosecution witness) when the teenager was injured.

Siti Bainun did not agree with the prosecution’s suggestion that she did not seriously care for Bella and gave that responsibility to Yasmin.

In the previous proceedings, Yasmin told the court, Siti Bainun ordered her to apply medicine on Bella’s wound and the medicine was bought by the accused herself.

Siti Bainun was charged with neglecting and abusing the teenager causing physical and emotional injury in a condominium unit in Wangsa Maju between February and June 2021, according to Section 31(1)(a) of the Children Act 2001, which carries a maximum prison sentence of 20 years or a fine of RM50,000 or both if convicted.

The trial took place before Judge Izralizam Sanusi. — Bernama