Kovan trial: Accused unsure if he made phone call to elder Tan
Iskandar Rahmat, the accused in the Kovan double murder, is said to have made a call to Tan Boon Sin to find out the amount of valuables available in the victim’s safe deposit box.
Deputy Public Prosecutor Lau Wing Yum, in his cross-examination of Iskandar on Monday, said that the accused made the call to Tan and not his colleague Staff Sargent Lim Min Wei, and had killed Tan and his son Tan Chee Heong in an attempt to silence them.
Iskandar challenged the point by the prosecution, despite the latter saying he did not challenge Lim when the officer took the stand during the trial earlier and it was recorded in Lim’s statement.
“If I had seen it (the statement) I would have challenged (it),” said Iskandar.
The former investigation officer is facing trial for the murder of Tan, 66, and the younger Tan, 42, at Hillside Drive in July 2013. The senior staff sergeant, who was attached to the Bedok Police Division, will be hanged if convicted.
Looking calm and spotting a neat haircut, Iskandar later added that he was unsure if it was him or Lim who made the call to Tan to check the contents of a safe deposit box that was stored at the Certis Cisco facility at Jalan Afifi.
The elder Tan, a car workshop owner, had in November 2012 lodged two police reports relating to the theft of valuables from his safe deposit box. The case was assigned to the accused, an investigation officer back then.
Iskandar was facing financial difficulties, owing Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation (OCBC) more than $60,000. The bank filed a bankruptcy application against him in October 2012.
Murder was to silence victims
The accused denied the prosecution’s claim that he had killed the Tans, in an effort to silence them. DPP Lau said that given Iskandar’s experience as a senior investigation officer, he would have known that the police would have easily connected him to the crime.
“You know that if he (the elder Tan) is dead he won’t be able to call the police. If he had made a police report we will say that a Malay man had robbed him and ran away with his money,” said DPP Lau.
Iskandar had arranged to meet up with Tan on 10 July 2013, pretending to be an officer with the Police Intelligence Department with information on the 2012 reports. After convincing Tan to place a dummy CCTV in his safe deposit box, Iskandar then escorted him back home in Tan’s car, assuring him that his “partner” was following them in another car.
He is standing by his defense that he had no intention to commit the double murder and insisted that it was a robbery attempt that went wrong.
However, DPP Lau questioned Iskandar’s intentions when he arrived at Tan’s house in July 2013.
According to the prosecution, Iskandar had, upon arriving at the house, went out for a smoke outside the main gate and had requested Tan not to close it as his “partner” will be arriving anytime soon.
Iskandar then stabbed the elder Tan and later, the younger Tan, who had arrived at the house for a visit. The accused later fled in the elder Tan’s car and escaped to Johor Bahru. He was arrested there on 12 July 2013 and was brought back to Singapore.
The trial will resume on Wednesday.
