Man faces murder charge for Bangi road rage incident

UPDATED | An IT worker has been charged with murder for the road rage incident on Aug 10 that killed bank manager Syed Muhammad Danial Syed Syakir, 29.

According to Berita Harian, Yew Wei Liang, 41, was brought to the Kajang Magistrates' Court today, where he only nodded after the charge was read to him before magistrate Nor Afidah Idris. No plea was recorded.

Yew is accused of causing Syed Muhammad Danial’s death at Kilometre 293.6 of the North-South Expressway, between 1pm and 2pm, on Aug 10.

The charge under Section 302 of the Penal Code carries the mandatory death penalty upon conviction.

Previously, police said investigations had found that Syed Muhammad Danial had rear-ended the accused’s car, following which the two drivers started chasing and taunting each other until they stopped at the Bandar Baru Bangi exit.

A fight broke out the two, and the Syed Muhammad Danial eventually retrieved a baseball bat from his car and started hitting the front of Yew’s car.

Yew, who had retreated to the inside of his car by then, allegedly accelerated his vehicle and pinned Syed Muhammad Danial to a road divider, mortally injuring him.

Police had stressed that the incident had nothing to do with race and warned against using the matter to incite racial sentiments.

Deputy public prosecutor Siti Noor Hafizan Zakaria handled the prosecution while the accused was represented by lawyers Vargese Onny and S Selvam.

Earlier, Selvam had said that he wanted to make a complaint that during remand, the accused had suffered physical injuries and was taken to the Kajang Hospital on Aug 13.

Selvam also asked the court to set a date to hear the complaint filed by their client under Section 131 of the Criminal Procedure Code.

The court set Sept 27 for re-mention to submit the report and to hear the accused's complaint and directed the lawyers to submit a hospital report, on the alleged injuries sustained by the victim, on the same date.