Raveentharan said it could have been a Good Samaritan who allowed the late Annapuranee to use the phone when she was in distress. — Reuters pic
GEORGE TOWN, March 28 — Australian Annapuranee Jenkins made a distress call to her husband on the day she was last seen, which was December 13 in 2017, lawyer S. Raveentharan told the Coroner’s Court here, today.
Raveentharan, who is conducting a watching brief during the inquest into the death of Annapuranee, claimed the Malaysian-born woman had called her husband, Francis James Jenkins, at about 5.22pm on that day.
“The first report he made clearly said the late Mrs Jenkins was arrested or withheld against her wishes by two Ukrainians,” he told the court in his opening statement when the inquest commenced before Coroner Norsalha Hamzah.
He also claimed the possible ransom was the 66-year-old’s international passport.
“The investigating officer did not exercise due diligence and neither did he investigate this crucial piece of evidence,” the counsel, who represented the Jenkins family, told the court.
He also claimed that the investigating officer did not visit the site.
“The investigating officer did not make any attempts to investigate the landline number and who were the owners of the number,” he said.
He said it could have been a Good Samaritan who allowed the late Annapuranee to use the phone when she was in distress.
“Her last words to her husband were that she wanted to return to the hotel,” he said.
Raveentharan then said a death certificate dated June 24, 2020 was issued but the cause of death was undetermined.
However, before he could elaborate, Penang state prosecution office director Datuk Khairul Annuar Abd Halim interrupted him to say that Raveentharan’s statement could give the wrong perception of the whole case.
“The whole reason for the inquest today is to identify the cause of death so I would like to ask the watching brief counsel to hold on and let this inquest go on first,” he said.
He said the purpose of the inquest was to uncover what happened to Annapuranee so it was not right for the watching brief counsel to give such an opening statement.
He further said the watching brief counsel’s presence during the inquest is to assist in the hearing and not to pit himself against the prosecution which is there to present the facts of the case.
Raveentharan agreed with Khairul Annuar and requested that his prayers mentioned in his statement, a copy of which was handed to the Coroner’s court, to be prioritised.
Coroner Norsalha then ruled that they will start with the testimonies from witnesses today.
The first witness called to the stand is Jen Hotel Penang general manager O. Odayappan.
He confirmed that Annapuranee and her husband, Francis, made reservations to stay at the hotel from December 5 to 21, 2017.
He said he met the couple several times at the lobby of the hotel during their stay there.
“They were friendly and appeared to be very close as I noticed the husband always accompanied her to the lobby if she was going out,” he said.
He said they were a loving couple and that Francis was a cordial and soft-spoken person.
He said the last time he saw Annapuranee, she had tried to get an e-hailing ride but failed to do so on her phone.
“We saw her crossing the street to a taxi stand down the road across from the hotel along Magazine Road,” he said.
He said that was the last time he saw her.
He also confirmed a picture of Annapuranee leaving the hotel premises at about 2.40pm dated December 13, 2017, taken from a CCTV recording at the hotel, was that of her.
Annapuranee was reported missing on December 13, 2017 while on the way to visit her mother at a nursing home.
Her remains and belongings were found on June 24, 2020 at a construction site near where she was last seen.
Odayappan then told the court that the next day, Jenkins had told them that Annapuranee did not return to the hotel.
“He told us that she went out and did not return so we asked him where she might have gone and he said she was going to visit her mother at a nursing home,” he said.
He said his colleague helped Jenkins to lodge a police report on that day and after that, Odayappan had driven Jenkins around George Town to search for Annapuranee but could not find her.
The inquest continues in the afternoon.
Annapuranee’s case caught the attention of the South Australian government when a member of the legislative council, Frank Pangallo, took up the case on behalf of the Jenkins family last year.
Pangallo issued a statement today that the South Australian Parliament is closely monitoring the inquest.