KUALA LUMPUR, June 24 (Bernama) -- The "wife" of a man charged with committing robberies caused a major stir in the Sessions Court here today when "she" turned out to be a he.

The issue arose when P. Ramesh, 40, pleaded not guilty to the charges and his "wife" wanted to post bail for him.Judge Zainal Abidin Kamarudin on checking the "wife"'s identity card (MyKad) went pale when he discovered "her" name to be Rajandren a/l Nagarajan.

This prompted him to ask the "woman", who was dressed in a brown saree and matching blouse if they were indeed married, to which "she" just smiled and nodded her head Rajandren told the judge they had a traditional marriage but had yet to register the marriage with the authorities because his sex status had not been changed with the National Registration Department (NRD).

"So how should I address you, "Puan" or "Encik" (Mr or Mrs? For now I will just follow what is stated in your MyKad and call you "Encik"," Zainal Abdin said, adding that this was the first time he had come across such a situation.

Ramesh and an accommplice, D.Shanmuganathan, 31, were jointly charged with four others still at large with robbing RM500, a copy of a Bangladesh passport and two Auto-Teller Machine (ATM) cards belonging to Babul Nejamuddin in front of Menara Maybank, Jalan Tun Perak here around 10.30pm on April 16.

Ramesh is also charged with robbing another Bangladeshi, Mohd Rajivur Rahman, of RM700 at the same place, date and time.

He is also separately charged with being in possession of a stolen watch belonging to Chung Kim Wooi, 61, at a house in Lorong Haji Taib 2 at 5.15pm on June 5.

For the robbery charges he is liable to be jailed up to 20 years, fined and whipped and jailed up to five years or fined or both for the stolen goods offence, if convicted.

Zainal Abidin allowed him bail at RM5,000 in one surety and fixed July 30 for re-mention.

Shanmughanathan also pleaded not guilty to robbing Babul Nejamuddin together with Ramesh and also to a separate charge of being in possession of a stolen taxi behind Bangunan Sime Darby, Jalan Raja Laut here, at 1pm on June 4.

Zainal Abidin also imposed the same bail conditions for him and July 30 for re-mention of his cases.
The prosecution was represented by Deputy Public Prosecutor Lee Keng Fatt while both the accused were unrepresented. -- BERNAMA