2 drug offenders dumped friend's body at staircase landing, robbed his belongings
[video=youtube;JnovhtY8FW0]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JnovhtY8FW0[/video]
Shaffiq Alkhatib
Thursday, Oct 22, 2015
He died suddenly while in the company of two friends.
But the friends did not alert the authorities about his death as they were both wanted by the Central Narcotics Bureau.
Instead, Karim Arshad, 42, and Juwita Mohd Yusof, 36, unceremoniously dumped Mr Ramdan Ishak's body at a staircase landing between the sixth and seventh storeys of Block 4, Dover Road.
Karim, who has been in and out of jail since 1997 for mainly drug-related offences, pleaded guilty in court yesterday to one count each of drug consumption and dishonestly misappropriating Mr Ramdan's property.
He was jailed for eight years and four months and ordered to receive six strokes of the cane.
A second drug consumption charge and one count of disposing of a dead body in a public place were taken into consideration during sentencing.
Juwita, who is also a recalcitrant drug abuser, pleaded guilty to two counts of failing to report for a urine test and one count of misappropriating Mr Ramdan's property.
She will be sentenced on Oct 30 after she told District Judge Hamidah Ibrahim that she wanted her mother, who lives in Johor Baru, to be present in court during her sentencing.
On June 2, Mr Ramdan, 37, Juwita and Karim went to Block 4, Dover Road, to console their friend, Madam Ratnawati Samad, 38, whose husband had been arrested for drug activities.
They decided to stay overnight in her flat. In the wee hours of the next morning, Mr Ramdan went to the bathroom and remained inside for a long time.
Sudden death
When Karim went to check on him, he was sitting on a toilet bowl, seemingly asleep. He appeared weak when Karim tried to wake him up.
As Karim was helping Mr Ramdan out of the bathroom, he spotted a syringe in the back pocket of his friend's trousers.
He asked Mr Ramdan about it but the latter did not reply. Karim threw the syringe away.
Court papers did not mention the contents of the syringe or what it had been used for.
They joined Juwita in the living room and fell asleep.
She woke up at around 9.30am and realised Mr Ramdan was no longer breathing.
She alerted Karim and they decided to get rid of the body. They did not inform the pregnant Madam Ratnawati about the death as they did not want to alarm her, the court heard.
Before carrying the body to the staircase landing, they helped themselves to Mr Ramdan's personal belongings, including his sling bag and Samsung mobile phone.
A resident later saw the body and informed the authorities.
The pair were arrested on June 4 and Karim's urine sample was later found to contain traces of morphine.
For dishonestly misappropriating property, he could have been jailed for up to three years and fined.
For drug consumption, he could have been jailed up to 13 years and given 12 strokes of the cane.
