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[Left: The body of Nikie, seen in a file picture, being carried into a cemetery by her uncle. Right: Victim's mother, Madam Rozanah Mohamed Yusoff]
By Vivien Chan
HE CLAIMED his wife was the one who had hit their eldest daughter and caused her death.
Sallehan Allaudin's lawyer, Mr N Kanagavijayan, said Sallehan told him that Madam Rozanah Mohamed Yusoff had used a broom stick to hit Nikie's back twice while all three were in the kitchen.
Madam Rozanah then walked to the living room with him, leaving Nikie to cry.
When the toddler's cries became faint, she went back into the kitchen with Sallehan.
At this point, the couple saw Nikie stand and then fall face down.
Sallehan also claimed that while they were waiting for the ambulance next to their block, Madam Rozanah told him not to tell anyone that she had hit Nikie. Instead, he was to say that he had punched Nikie on the back.
He said Madam Rozanah is now accusing him of kicking and stepping on Nikie to "cover up" her act of hitting the girl.
Sallehan, through his lawyer, maintained that he did not kick and step on Nikie.
Mr Kanagavijayan also told the court that Sallehan, a cleaner who was taking home $800 each month, was "under stress as his salary could not meet the needs of the family".
He was "also under stress whenever the three children cried at the same time".
This was especially so when Sallehan, who worked from 11.30pm to 5.30am, came home after work.
Madam Rozanah agreed, saying: "(Sallehan) was worried because if he could not get enough sleep, he would be stressed."
She has visited her husband five or six times while he was in remand.
Madam Rozanah said yesterday that she took one of Nikie's sisters on her first visit to see him.
She said: "He requested for me to visit him because he claimed that he has nobody else but me."
But Mr Kanagavijayan suggested that the purpose of her visits was not so noble.
He said she visited Sallehan to "remind" him not to implicate her in Nikie's beating and that if he did so, their two children would be "without parents".
But Madam Rozanah denied she had said that to her husband.
This story was first published in The New Paper.
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