KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 29 — A former chief executive officer of the Malaysian Automotive Robotics And IOT Institute (MARii) pleaded not guilty in the Sessions Court here today to a charge of cheating the Board of Directors of the institute over a training contract five years ago.

Datuk Mohamad Madani Sahari, 57, was alleged to have cheated MARii’s board of directors by deceiving them into believing that the price offered by LPS Learning Platform to conduct the training was RM6.4 million when the actual price was only RM2.3 million.

This prompted the board of directors to hand over the contract to the LPS Learning Platform as the training provider for Central, East Coast, Southern and Sabah & Sarawak regions, at the price of RM6.4 million, which they would not have done so if not deceived.

The offence was allegedly committed in a meeting room at a hotel on Jalan Stesen Sentral Dua here between 10.50 am to 3.35 pm on Dec 14, 2019.

The charge, framed under Section 420 of the Penal Code, provides imprisonment for up to 10 years and whipping and is liable to fine, if found guilty.

Judge Rozina Ayob, following a request by deputy public prosecutor Law Chin How allowed the accused to use the RM300,000 bail set by the Shah Alam Sessions Court in an earlier case.

She also set February 29 for mention.

According to Law, Mohamad Madani had been charged in the Shah Alam Sessions Court for corruption and he will be charged again in the same court tomorrow for an offence under Section 403 of the Penal Code.

The prosecution will apply to transfer the case at the Shah Alam Court to be tried together with the case at the Sessions Court here,” said Law who is handling the case with deputy public prosecutors Muhammad Asraf Mohamed Tahir and Haresh Prakash Somiah.

Lawyer Wan Aizuddin Wan Mohammed represented Mohamad Madani.

On April 14 last year, Mohamad Madani was charged in the Shah Alam Sessions Court with accepting a bribe of RM5 million from an individual through a bank account as a reward for helping a company secure a letter of award for a contract worth RM12 million.

He was also charged in the Sessions Court here on May 8 last year with soliciting a bribe of RM5 million to help a company obtain a contract for a training and placement programme. — Bernama