Bomoh wins appeal against conviction in molestation case

IPOH: The High Court here allowed an appeal by a bomoh to set aside his 14 months' jail sentence for molesting a woman during the therapy session 10 years ago.

In freeing 69-year-old Abu Bedor Janum, Judicial Commissioner Ridwan Hashim ruled that the accused should not have convicted of the crime because there were too many discrepancies in the prosecution's case.

He said the most detrimental factor was the inconsistency shown by the key prosecution witness, who was also the victim in the case. He said the victim had contradicted herself many times when giving evidence during the examination-in-chief and cross-examination.

Agreeing with defense counsel Charan Singh's submission, he said the court not accept the victim's two versions of evidence pertaining to where the crime supposedly took place.

"At one time, she said it happened in the bathroom and another time she said it was in Abu Bedor's room.

"She also could not tell whether the accused forced her to swallow one or two pills before she was molested," he said.

On May 13, 2002, a magistrate's court in Parit had found Abu Bedor guilty of using force to outrage the modesty of the then 24-year-old woman. Abu Bedor, then 56, was alleged to have committed the crime at his house in Lambor Kiri, Bota, at 4.45pm on Sept 6, 1997. Judicial Commissioner Ridwan noted that the failure by the prosecution to call several material witnesses, including the woman's boyfriend, had resulted in a break in the chain of evidence.

"There is no testimony from the boyfriend despite him being the first person to be informed about the alleged incident by the complainant," he said.

He also said the woman's parents had also given contradictory evidence as the reasons they went to see Abu Bedor.

"The parents had said that they went to the accused's house to get their daughter to break off with her boyfriend.

"But the complainant said she was taken to see the accused because her spiritual problems," he said.

Judicial Commisioner Ridwan said the contradictory evidence among the prosecution witnesses had resulted a charge framed against Abu Bedor that could not be proven beyond reasonable doubt.

Source: Star newspaper