AN estate worker who caused the death of his colleague over bad cooking today succeeded in his appeal for his murder charge to be reduced to culpable homicide not amounting to murder.

The Court of Appeal instead sentenced Mohamad Rosli Naqur Gani, 41, to 22 years in jail for killing R. Devadas, 60, at an unnumbered house in Chuan Leng Rubber Estate, Bellengu Halt, Mentakab, Pahang between 1.50am and 11.50am on April 17, 2017.

He was ordered to serve the sentence from the date of his arrest on April 17, 2017.

A three-man panel comprising Justices Kamaludin Md Said, P. Ravinthran and Hashim Hamzah allowed his appeal after finding that based on evidence, Rosli’s conviction for murder was not safe.

Justice Kamaludin, who chaired the panel, said the High Court judge failed to consider Rosli’s entire defence that he was provoked.

The Temerloh High Court had, on October 22, 2019, sentenced Rosli to death

Mohamad Rosli was sentenced to death by the Temerloh High Court on Oct 22, 2019 after he was found guilty of killing Devadas.

According to the evidence, Rosli and the deceased always quarrelled as the former disliked the deceased’s cooking. Devadas also accused Rosli of not keeping food for him. Both of them and another worker were staying in a quarters provided by their employer.

Earlier, Rosli’s lawyer S. Sundarajan argued that a fight broke out after a grave and sudden provocation by the deceased and that both were in a state of intoxication when the fight took place.

Deputy public prosecutor How May Ling urged the court to impose the maximum 30-year jail term provided under the penal code as the deceased’s sustained a fractured rib cage from being hit with a wooden club and a sickle. – Bernama, October 18, 2022.