High Court in Perak denies bail for cop accused of student’s murder in hit-and-run last year

IPOH, Sept 5 — The High Court here today denied bail for a deputy superintendent of police charged with the murder of a 17-year-old student who was killed in a hit-and-run accident last year.

High Court Judge Datuk Bhupindar Singh Gucharan Singh Preetdi rejected the bail application, citing reasonable grounds to believe an offence under Section 302 of the Penal Code had been committed.

“There is no special reason for the court to grant bail,” he said in his decision.

On May 3, Mohd Nazri Abdul Razak, 44, filed the bail application at the High Court here, pending the hearing of his case.

Mohd Nazri was represented by counsel Jacky Loi Yap Loong and his team consists of Lim Chi Chau, Lim Jin Wen, Cindy Wong and M. Kuhan.

The prosecution is led by Deputy Public Prosecutor Afzainizam Abdul Aziz and also consists of Nasrul Hadi Abdul Ghani, and Low Qin Hui.

Earlier, Loi submitted a request for his client to be granted bail, citing concerns for the safety of the client’s family and the inconvenience of meeting with counsel in prison.

Loi also said the prosecution team could not prove whether there was “intention to murder” in this case.

“A crime can only be a crime if there was act of intention. There is no intention here. It can’t be someone caused (an) accident and called it as murder,” he said.

Meanwhile, Afzainizam in his submission replied that Mohd Nazri was given full access to counsel in the prison.

“The prison did not stop Mohd Nazri to meet his counsels. So no issues, and inconvenience is not a ground to grant bail,” he said.

On intention of the crime, Afzainizam said there is reasonable ground to believe that the offence was committed.

He further stated that it is the courts’ role to determine intent during the trial, not during the bail application process.

“Based on the witness statement, the suspect drove a Perodua Ativa when he rammed the victim. He did not drive a police car. So you can’t say he was chasing a suspect.

“The witness also saw that the suspect came out of the car after hitting the victim’s motorcycle but fled from the scene later,” he said.

“Based on the post-mortem report, the victim died due to chest and abdomen injuries caused by the crash.

“We have forensic, dash-camera and closed-circuit television (CCTV) evidence to show that the suspect was driving above the speed limit,” he said.

Mohd Nazri was charged with murdering Form Five student Muhammad Zaharif Affendi Muhd Zamrie at Jalan Taman Jati 1, near Sekolah Menengah Kebangsaan (SMK) Jati, Ipoh, between 12.05pm and 12.40pm on December 15 last year.

A video went viral on social media after the alleged incident about a schoolboy who died after the motorcycle he was riding was hit by a car, believed to have been driven by a senior police officer near the school.