PROSECUTION’S CASE
Opening its case on Tuesday, the prosecution said that Chua bought the mixer machine in August 2019 from a company in China via the Alibaba online platform. The machine was installed on Jun 12, 2020.
Stars Engrg and Chua used the mixer machine improperly and continued to use it despite “clear indications that it was unsafe to use”, the prosecution said.
“This created an environment of risk to the health and safety (of) every person at the worksite,” Deputy Public Prosecutors Timotheus Koh, Grace Chua, Mohamed Riasudeen and Goh Qi Shuen said.
They said that they will be leading evidence from Stars Engrg employees and experts to show that the company and Chua:
- Used insufficient thermic oil
- Operated the mixer machine as a “closed system” without pressure monitoring
- Failed to monitor the oil jacket temperature
- Continued using the mixer machine despite incidents that showed it was unsafe to use, and took inappropriate and insufficient steps to ensure that it was safe for continued use
The company and Chua owed a duty of care to their employees but failed to ensure that they had adequate instruction, information, training and supervision to perform their work, the prosecution said.
They also failed to ensure that safety measures were taken and failed to provide a safe environment for the employees.
It added that Lwin Moe Tun negligently endangered the safety of Stars Engrg employees by allowing them to conduct repairs on the mixer machine’s heater despite the risks involved.
After the accident, Lwin Moe Tun allegedly asked Chua if he could delete a WhatsApp conversation between him and one of the deceased employees, Subbaiyan Marimuthu, on Feb 25, 2021. The conversation was eventually deleted.
Both of them allegedly knew that deleting this communication could obstruct investigations into the incident, the prosecution said.
