By Chong Shin Yen

THEY wanted to replace their lawyer.

But when the family of David Hartanto Widjaja met Mr Shashi Nathan yesterday morning, they did not inform him of their plans. Mr Nathan found out only when the coroner's inquiry resumed.

The Widjaja family was half an hour late.

When the hearing began, State Coroner Victor Yeo said that he had received a letter, signed by the family, stating that the family wanted to discharge Mr Nathan. It also said that they had approached criminal lawyer Subhas Anandanto act for them instead. The family also requested that Mr Yeo adjourn the inquiry.

David, 21, a final-year electrical and electronic engineering student at the Nanyang Technological University (NTU), fell four storeys to his death at about 10.30amon2 Mar.

He had allegedly stabbed Associate Professor Chan Kap Luk, 45, the supervisor of his final-year project.

Not informed

Mr Nathan told the court: 'It's quite disappointing... I'm very surprised. Although I met

David's father this morning,none of the information was told to me.'

Mr Yeo said he would give the family half an hour to locate Mr Subhas, as the latter had to be present to make a formal application if he was to act for the family.

Mr Yeo also said that if Mr Subhas was unable to take over the case immediately, the family would have to decide whether to continue withMrNathan or to proceed without a lawyer.

Mr Subhas, who was engaged in a trial in the same building, turned up at the Coroner's Court later.

'I've been told that Your Honour wanted to see me, so I'm here,' said Mr Subhas.

He told the court that he was first approached by the family a few days ago.

And on Wednesday, he was again asked to take on the case, for reasons that 'do not have to be stated in court'.

But Mr Subhas said that he had not agreed to their request.

He said: 'If the court is willing to give an adjournment, I'm prepared to consider. But if (the court) wants me to continue (the inquiry) today, I'm unable to. I'm not Superman.'

Mr Subhas explained that he would need time to prepare for the case.

Mr Yeo rejected the family's request for an adjournment, saying that it was already the last day of the 10-day hearing.

He then gave the family two options: Continue the proceedings with Mr Nathan or proceed without a lawyer. The family chose the former. Mr Nathan said that he would act for the family till the end as he did not want to delay the proceedings.

The lead investigating officer of the case, Station Inspector (SI) Soh Chee Eng, told the court yesterday that the police had found a memory stick in Prof Chan's office. It was lying on a stack of papers on the desk.

This was the same memory stick which David had supposedly handed Prof Chan before he allegedly stabbed him.

He'd told Prof Chan that it contained his final-year project work.

But investigators later determined that the memory stick contained only deleted episodes from the television series Prison Break.

SI Soh was the last witness in the inquiry.

MrYeo will give his verdict on29 Jul.

Speaking to reporters after the inquiry, Mr Nathan said that the Widjaja family had later apologised to him for the 'drama'.

Mr Nathan said: 'As an advocate, I have a duty to the court and to my client. So I took the unusual step to continue with the proceedings.'

This article was first published in The New Paper.