Woman paralysed in 1997 incident involving senior cop’s wife awarded RM350,000

A former hairstylist who became paralysed following a shooting incident involving a senior police officer’s wife 29 years ago was awarded RM350,000 in a consent judgment recorded at the Johor Bahru High Court yesterday.

Judicial Commissioner Budiman Lutfi Mohamed also annulled a consent judgment entered in 2007 in a previous suit involving the plaintiff and the couple.

“This settlement has been reached without any admission of liability by any of the parties in the matter.

“The (2007) agreement via the then consent judgment is hereby cancelled with immediate effect and without liberty for the parties to file afresh,” he said on Wednesday.

The law firm that brokered the 2007 settlement, named as a third party in the suit, agreed to pay RM10,000 in legal costs to the 58-year-old plaintiff.

The plaintiff’s counsel, M Manoharan, said the 2007 consent judgment required the couple to pay his client RM500 a month. He said a total of RM114,000 was paid under the arrangement.

In court documents sighted by FMT, the plaintiff claimed she became paralysed from the waist down after a gunshot was discharged during an altercation at an apartment in Johor Bahru on Dec 28, 1997.

In 2019, the plaintiff sought an increase in monthly payments from the couple, saying the amount was insufficient due to rising medical costs, but her request was rejected.

She filed the present suit seeking RM2.8 million in damages two years later.

The Johor Bahru High Court initially struck out the suit.

However, the Court of Appeal reinstated it in 2024 and ordered that the case proceed to trial.

FMT is withholding the identities of all parties.

The plaintiff was represented by M Manoharan and M Hariharan, while G Ravi and Aida Hassan appeared for the defendants. S Gunasegaran represented the law firm.