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©New
Straits Times (Used by permission)
By Sharanjit Singh and Aaron Nguinews@nst.com.my
GEORGE TOWN: A prominent lawyer, renowned for his civil litigation skills,
was stabbed to death outside his office at Green Hall here yesterday.
Datuk S.P. Annamalai succumbed to his injuries at the
Gleneagles Medical Centre at 8pm.
He was attacked by an unknown assailant at 6.35pm at the carpark 10 metres from
his office.
Annamalai, 59, was walking towards his car accompanied by his secretary, S.
Nalaayani, 20, when the assailant struck.
"There was a shout from behind and before we could turn, my boss was stabbed,"
Nalaayani said at the medical centre.
"My boss collapsed and I screamed for help. The man then tried to attack me. I
swung my handbag at him several times."
She said her screams brought several passers-by to the scene.
One of them, Paranjit Singh, said the suspect swung his parang at them before
running towards an accomplice waiting on a motorcycle.
"He was armed with a parang and there was nothing much any of us could do,"
Paramjit said.
The assailant was described as stocky with dark skin.
Paramjit then rushed Annamalai to the medical centre in his car but the lawyer
lost consciousness on the way there.
Doctors were working on him at the emergency ward when Annamalai succumbed to
his injuries about 90 minutes after the attack.
Annamalai had represented former magistrate Balbir Kaur and her siblings, Dr
Prakash Kaur and Jasbeer Singh, in a family tussle over several parcels of land
in Penang.
Balbir was the magistrate who was charged with criminal breach of trust but had
jumped bail two decades ago.
Recently, the charge against her was dropped as the main witnesses in the case
had either died or gone missing.
Meanwhile, several lawyers who knew Annamalai said it was shocking that one of
their colleagues had been attacked in broad daylight.
Annamalai was a legal assistant to Karpal Singh in the 1970s.
Karpal said Annamalai's death was a terrible incident that had sent shockwaves
through the legal fraternity.
"This is not the first time a lawyer has been murdered. The last incident
happened in Kulim where a lawyer was attacked in her office.
"All these cases have remained unsolved. I hope police will get to the bottom of
this," he said.
Another lawyer, Datuk V. Sithambaram, described Annamalai as a formidable
opponent in court.
He said Annamalai's death is a loss to the legal profession and hoped police
would find those responsible for his murder.
Northeast district police chief Assistant Commissioner Azam Abd Hamid, who
confirmed the incident, declined comment as investigations were under way.
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Circular No 297/2008
Knowing that Malaysia has got many races of people, to say that the assailant is of 'dark skin' is not enough.
To assist the police in doing its job speedily, it is better to mention honestly the race of the assailant - or at least the most probable race - in order to narrow down the ''guesses'' of the person - by the police, instead of their concluding as 'tak cukup maklumat'.
Tan Peek Guat