Siti Bainun denies splashing Bella with hot water, asking her to eat chilli and faeces

Rumah Bonda founder Siti Bainun Ahd Razali told the Kuala Lumpur Sessions Court today that Bella, a teenage girl with Down syndrome, was never asked to eat chilli and faeces, bound and splashed with hot water or tortured with a hot pan.

She said these never happened to Bella, as claimed by the fifth prosecution witness, Yasmin Nahar Mahmood, a former resident of the welfare home, in her testimony.

"From what I can remember, Yasmin told the court that I told her to keep Bella tied up all the time, give the girl chilli and faeces to eat, splashed the girl with hot water, tortured her with a hot pan and scolded the girl. 

"There was no need for me to do all these things to the girl," she said during examination-in-chief by her lawyer, Mohammad Farhan Maaruf, at her defence trial.

She also said she had never ordered Yasmin or another former resident of Rumah Bonda known as Aida to ill-treat Bella or to splash hot water on the girl as Bella had never caused her any problems.

Questioned by Farhan about Yasmin's statement that she had ordered her to feed Bella chilli, Siti Bainun said such a thing had never happened to any of her wards.

"I have never hurt anyone, although among the many people in the house, Yasmin was the one who gave me a headache every day," she added.

On Nov 24 last year, the judge ordered Siti Bainun to enter her defence against two charges of neglecting and abusing Bella after finding that the prosecution had succeeded in proving a prima facie case against her.

She was alleged to have committed the offences at a condominium unit in Wangsa Maju between February and June 2021.

The charge, framed under Section 31(1)(a) of the Child Act 2001, carries imprisonment of up to 20 years, a fine of RM50,000, or both upon conviction.

The hearing before judge Izralizam Sanusi continues.