>JOHOR BARU, MALAYSIA - He had came from Tamil Nadu, India, to work as a barber, but yesterday Nagarajan Vaithilingam, 22, was sentenced to 12 years' jail for causing the death of his employer who he claimed had sexually abused him. Two of his compatriots who work at the same barber shop were jointly charged with him but were acquitted following his guilty plea.
Nagarajan was emotionless when the sentence was passed by Sessions Court judge Abd Ghafar Abdul Latif. The sentence begins from the date of his arrest on May 23 last year.
Nagarajan, Murugesan Na-tarajan, 36, and Ramalingam Sundaravel, 19, were jointly charged with causing the death of their employer, Ganthi Kanapathy, 33, by hitting him on his head with a stick at Guys World barber shop, Jalan Harmonium 11, Taman Desa Tebrau in Ulu Tiram between 1am and 1.30am on May 22 last year.
After Nagarajan pleaded guilty, his lawyer Vijayandran Thannigasalam appealed to the court for leniency.
He said the court should take into consideration the circumstances leading to the death of Ganthi as a mitigating factor in sentencing.
Nagarajan, along with Murugesan and Ramalingam, had in earlier court proceedings claimed that they were sexually abused by their employer over a period of time, leading them to confront him.
The court ordered that Murugesan and Ramalingam be handed over to the Immigration as their permits expired on May 27 last year.
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