KOTA KINABALU: The former senior assistant for student affairs of SMKA Tun Datuk Mustapha testified that he never neglected matters related to the late Zara Qairina Mahathir.
The 57th witness, Asnie Marjan, told the coroner's court that after Zara Qairina was found unconscious at the school on July 16, he had been busy attending to parents.
"After dawn on the 16th, I was at the hospital the whole time until night. On Thursday morning, there was a discussion about the incident, and after that, I spent most of my time attending to parents.
"Besides matters involving school transfers, they (parents) also asked for updates on their children, sought emotional support regarding the school situation, and requested guidance," said the 56-year-old teacher, adding that three to four parents
came to him almost daily during that period.
Asnie also testified that he met Zara Qairina's mother three times, at the hospital, during the burial, and during a home visit.
The teacher was posted to the school in March last year and is now based at the Papar district education office.
Conducting officer Mohd Fairuz Johari earlier questioned why Asnie took two days to visit the location where the girl was found unconscious.
Before coroner Judge Amir Shah Amir Hassan, Asnie said he was at home when the chief warden informed him of the incident at around 3.25am.
The witness told the court he did not go to the scene and had entrusted the chief warden to manage it. He only visited the site a few days later, by which time he could no longer see any trace of blood.
When asked about the scanned copies of Zara Qairina's diaries, Asnie said he only received one, which was brown in colour.
He said another teacher, whom he only identified as Cikgu Yuslinah, had sent it to him via personal WhatsApp.
However, due to time constraints, he said he could not confirm whether the scanned PDF copy was the same as the exhibit shown in court, as he had never opened the document.
Fairuz: "So you didn't even know the front cover of the diary?"
Asnie: "Yes."
Fairuz: "But how did you know it was brown?"
Asnie: "Because the PDF file had the word 'brown'. The message was deleted, as my phone has this auto-delete feature."
Fairuz: "Can you explain why you never opened the scanned diary at all? Didn't you want to know what really happened to Zara?"
Asnie: "As I said earlier, it was due to time constraints."
Asnie also told the court that the school did not inform the police, district education office, Sabah Education Department, or the Education Ministry about the scanned diary copy, internal inquiry, or reports.
He said the decision was made because Zara's case was already under police investigation.
The inquest continues tomorrow.
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