SHAH ALAM: The High Court here has set aside a discharge not amounting to an acquittal (DNAA) granted by a magistrate to a woman police officer charged with insulting the modesty of another officer.
Justice Norsharidah Awang allowed the appeal by Sheila Sharon Steven Kumar, better known as Inspector Sheila, on grounds that the charge had not been read to her, and a plea not taken, before a magistrate as required by law.
“The appeal is allowed and the DNAA granted by the magistrate on June 26 is set aside,” the judge said in a brief oral ruling today.
Earlier, Sheila’s lawyer, M Manoharan, said a deputy public prosecutor had informed the Selayang magistrates’ court that Sheila, 35, had been granted a DNAA due to a “technical glitch” encountered by the court registry.
Manoharan said the magistrates’ court was wrong to grant a DNAA as no charge was “hanging over my client’s head”.
The charge, brought under Section 509 of the Penal Code, had alleged that Sheila had made inappropriate remarks about the rank of lance corporal to policeman Farhan Abdul Razak at Taman Sri Gombak here at noon on June 15.
In another magistrates’ court, also in Selayang, Sheila was charged under the same provision of law with intentionally insulting the modesty of lawyer P Taneswaran, 31, by telling him: “Look at yourself, fat and bald like a rhinoceros.”
She faces a penalty of up to five years’ jail or a fine, or both, if convicted.
Sheila had also claimed trial for committing criminal intimidation against civilian M Silverkoomarie, an offence under Section 506 of the Penal Code, which carries a penalty of up to two years’ jail or a fine, or both, if convicted.
Both offences were alleged to have been committed at Taman Sri Gombak on June 15.
The trial for both cases will be held on Feb 5 and 6, next year.
