MALAYSIA: Doc Faces Trial for False Info on Babies, June 17, 2008

THE NEW STRAITS TIMES
June 17, 2008

Doc faces trial for false info on babies

Doctor faces up to eight counts of falsifying information to obtain birth certificates for babies. -NST

By R. Sittamparam

JOHOR BARU, MALAYSIA: A gynaecologist was charged yesterday with falsifying information on the biological parents of four babies to obtain birth certificates.

He was also charged with using the forged application forms for the birth certificates and endorsing certain couples as the biological parents when they were not.

Dr Robert Luk Tai Kong, 61, was charged in two Sessions Courts with eight counts - two counts for each baby.

In the first court presided by judge Muhammad Jamil Hussin, Dr Luk was charged in relation to one baby.

Before judge Aliman Musri, there were six charges pertaining to three babies.

Dr Luk claimed trial to all charges.

Before Muhammad Jamil, Dr Luk was charged with giving information to the National Registration Department (NRD) in a birth certificate application form that the biological parents of Fabian Naveen were Cynthia Darshan Singh and Ferliex S. Stanislaus at 11.43am on Oct 25 last year at No 33B, Menara Landmark, Landmark Medical Centre here.

By doing so, he impelled NRD staff Nayagie Kumarasamy to issue a birth certificate (BC) no BX33581 for the baby.

Dr Luk was also charged with using the BC application form as a genuine document for Fabian Naveen by endorsing the personal details of the baby's parents as the biological parents, knowing well that the document was a forgery.

Deputy public prosecutor Idham Abdul Ghani proposed bail of RM50,000 on the two charges and for Dr Luk's passport to be surrendered to the court.

Defence counsel R.K. Menon objected, saying that as Dr Luk would be facing six other charges in another court and possibly other charges later, the bail was excessive and asked for it to be reduced to RM10,000.

He also requested that Dr Luk be allowed to keep his passport because he did not have a place to stay in Johor Baru as he resided with his family in Singapore.

He said there was no danger that Dr Luk would abscond as he was a professional and had abided by requirements of the police bail after his arrest.

Muhammad Jamil set bail at RM20,000 on the two charges and instructed Dr Luk to report to Johor Baru Central Police Station on the first week of every month pending trial.

Before Aliman, Dr Luk faced six similar charges in respect of three babies.

* For baby Rubhashri Thiagarajan, he stated Kogula Sundari Periasamy and Thiagarajan Nadarajan as the biological parents, impelling NRD employee Suriyani Mohamad Noor to issue BC no BT97692 at 10.50am on Nov 23, 2006.
* For baby Loong Yu Xuan, he stated So Sai Hong and Loon Cher Heong as the biological parents, impelling NRD employee Nayagie Kumarasamy to issue BC no BX32598 at 10.23am on Oct 8, last year.
* For baby Serena Swathi, he stated Evensia Mary D. Stanislaus and Gerard Joseph as the biological parents, impelling NRD employee Sh Ramdzan Sh Abdullah to issue BC no BY76130 at 3.34pm on Feb 2.

In all three cases, he used the application forms for the birth certificates as genuine documents by endorsing the personal details of the parents as the biological parents, knowing well that the documents were forged.

Aliman set bail at RM60,000 for the six charges and ordered Dr Luk to report to the Johor Baru Central Police Station on the first week of every month pending trial.

Both judges fixed Aug 15 for the cases to be mentioned.

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