Kindergarten teacher jailed two months for hurting four-year-old boy

KLANG - A kindergarten teacher was sentenced to two months in jail by the Magistrate's Court, here, today, for injuring a four-year-old boy last month.

Magistrate Siti Zubaidah Mahat meted out the sentence on M. Malini, 25, after she pleaded guilty to intentionally injuring the child, at a kindergarten in Jalan Pandamaran, here, at 9.36 am on May 13.

She was charged under Section 323 of the Penal Code, which provides for a maximum sentence of one year imprisonment or a fine of up to RM2,000, or both, if convicted.

The court ordered the accused to serve the sentence starting from the date of arrest.

However, lawyer A. Birantha, who represented the accused, requested a stay of execution, pending an appeal to the High Court.

According to Birantha, the accused did not receive any notice regarding today's proceedings, and his client was told by her family that the punishment which would be imposed would only be in the form of a fine.

Deputy public prosecutor Yong Ching Hong did not object to the application and asked the court to impose bail of RM5,000 in one surety.

The court granted the application for a stay of execution of the sentence and set bail on the terms requested by the prosecution.

Yesterday, Klang Selatan district police chief, ACP Cha Hoong Fong, said that police received a complaint from the boy's father, at 4.49 pm on May 13, claiming that his son had suffered an injury, believed to have occurred at the kindergarten.

He said that the 33-year-old man claimed to have received a picture of his son with injuries to his cheek and back, at about 12.21 pm on the same day, before going to the kindergarten and finding out that a teacher had hit his son. - BERNAMA