IPOH: A 39-year-old woman was fined RM2,000 or in default two months jail by the magistrate's court here today after using her sister-in-law's identity card (MyKad) to register her pregnancy.
Magistrate S. Punitha handed down the sentence to Aishah Ramalinggam after she pleaded guilty.
According to the charge sheet, she was accused of using an identification card bearing the serial number 861231-05-5186 under the name Liza Baizurah Suliman.
The offence was allegedly committed at the labour room of Raja Permaisuri Bainun Hospital (HRPB) here at 2.30am on May 6.
For the offence, the accused was charged in accordance with Regulation 25 (1)(e) of the National Registration Regulations 1990 (Amendment 2007) which carries a jail term of up to three years or a fine not exceeding RM20,000 or both, upon conviction.
Deputy Public Prosecutor Vatchira Wong Rui Fern prosecuted, while the accused was represented by G. Harbhajan Singh, a lawyer from the National Legal Aid Foundation.
During mitigation, Harbhajan requested a minimum sentence, noting that his client works part-time at a shopping complex and has no fixed income.
He also said that his client, who is a single mother with three children aged between four months and 20 years, expressed deep regret over her mistake.
Earlier, Vatchira requested the court to impose a fair punishment as a lesson to the accused.
According to the facts of the case, on May 2 at 2.30pm, a medical officer on duty at the HRPB's Patient Admission Centre (PAC) received a patient (the accused) who was about to deliver and had registered her name as Liza Baizurah.
The patient mentioned that she had left her MyKad at home and only brought her Pregnancy Check-up Book (Pink Book).
Before her delivery on May 3 at 12.12am, the blood bank medical officer on duty conducted a check with the patient and found a discrepancy in the blood group, suspecting that the patient had falsified her identity card.
On May 6, several medical officers discussed the matter with the patient. She later confessed to using her sister-in-law's MyKad to register her name so that her child could be registered with her brother-in-law, Mohd Shafiq Abdullah, as the father.
The accused has paid the fine.