By Arul John

HE met his estranged wife at a bus stop, beat her up and then dragged her to the void deck of a block of flats at Block 181, Stirling Road.

Tharema Vejayan Govindasamy, 40, an odd-job worker, then forced her into the lift.

After getting out on the 12th storey, he flung Madam Smaelmeeral Abdul Aziz, 32, a factory operator, over the parapet.

Yesterday, Tharema Vejayan was sentenced to hang for the murder, which took place on 1 Jul 2007.

But the couple's children, a boy, 6, and a girl, 3, remain blissfully unaware about what happened. The children do not know that their mother is dead.

They are being looked after by Tharema Vejayan's cousin, Madam Mary (We are not using her real name in order to protect the children's identities).

She told The New Paper that she takes them to visit Tharema Vejayan in jail every week.

She said: 'When the little girl sees her father, she makes little gestures with her hands and looks so happy. The boy knows that his father is in jail but I tell him that Daddy is working there, and he is happy with that explanation.'

She said the children have not asked her about what happened to their parents.

She has not told anybody about what happened to their parents, except for their nursery and kindergarten supervisors.

'I don't want others to tease the children for what their father did,' she said.

Madam Mary said she does not know what to say to them when the prison visits finally end.

She said: 'By the time they go to secondary school, I think they will know what their father did and how their mother died.

'They are too young to know all those details now, but if they should ask me about them one day, I will have to tell them. For the moment, they are in good hands and are very safe.'

After Madam Smaelmeeral's death, the children were initially looked after by Tharema Vejayan's brother and his wife.

But the couple have three children of their own and found it hard to look after the kids.

Took over last year

So Madam Mary, who is married and childless, took over last year. The children are now living with her.

'The children do not miss their mother. They call me Mummy and I treat them like my own kids,' she said.

During the trial, the court heard that Madam Smaelmeeral and Tharema Vejayan married against her family's wishes, as she was Muslim and he was Hindu.

Her elder sister, Madam Hametah Abdul Aziz, 42, said that the family had cut off ties with Madam Smaelmeeral as a result.

She told the court that soon after the couple's second child was born in 2006, Madam Smaelmeeral caught Tharema Vejayan sleeping with another woman in their home.

Madam Smaelmeeral took out a Personal Protection Order (PPO) against him in April 2006, which he breached five times.

Court papers stated that Tharema Vejayan was jailed twice for breaching the PPO.

In March 2007, Madam Smaelmeeral filed for divorce. Three months later, she walked out on her husband and two children.

Took turns

After she moved out, Tharema Vejayan's friends took turns looking after the children while he went out to work.

The couple's marriage started to turn sour after their daughter was born in 2005 as Tharema Vejayan did not have a steady job and Madam Smaelmeeral had to work night shifts to help support the family.

She also borrowed money from her elder sister to tide over their finances.

It was also stated that the couple quarrelled soon after Madam Smaelmeeral found Tharema Vejayan in bed with another woman in early 2006.

Yesterday, as the interpreter translated Justice Tay Yong Kwang's judgment into Tamil, Tharema Vejayan looked calm and composed and occasionally nodded in agreement.

One of his lawyers, Mr Rajan Supramaniam, said he will be appealing.

Tharema Vejayan's niece, who did not want to be named, said that despite her uncle's temper, he loved his children.

She said: 'What will his children's future be like? Will anyone find out about what their father did and look down on them?'

While Tharema Vejayan's friends and relatives turned up at the High Court yesterday, none of Madam Smaelmeeral's relatives were there.

Her uncle, Mr Mohamed Abdul Kader, 55, only knew of the verdict after The New Paper informed him.

He said that no matter what the sentence was, it could not bring his niece back.

He said: 'What is there to say now? Throughout the years she and her husband were married, she hardly had a happy time with him.

'She filed PPOs against him, but he disregarded them and beat her often. Soon after her second PPO, I told her to divorce him but she said she still loved him.'

He said his family wanted to take care of Tharema Vejayan's children but declined after they learned that Mr Arasaretnam and his wife wanted to do so.

But after learning of the judgment, he said he would check with his family members about the children's welfare.

He said bitterly: 'Tharema Vejayan never asked to see me when he was in jail, nor did I visit him. Not once did he say he was sorry for what he did to my niece.'

This article was first published in The New Paper.

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