The Court of Appeal allowed the appeals of two men on Friday (May 27) as one did not know the nature of the drugs while the other said that the drugs were delivered by mistake.
Raj Kumar Aiyachami, 40, and Ramadass Punnusamy, 41, were charged over a bag of drugs containing not less than 1.875kg of cannabis.
Ramadass, a Malaysian, had driven a lorry into Singapore and delivered the bag containing the cannabis to Raj, a Singaporean, on Sept 21, 2015.
However, Ramadass was initially tasked to deliver bricks for his employer Ban Chong Transport Trading Sdn Bhd in Johor Bahru.
On top of unloading the cargo bricks at 10 Senoko Loop, Central Narcotics Bureau officers observed Ramadass circling the area before delivering a bag to Raj, as noted in the case’s judgment text.
Raj did not dispute the drugs were in his possession but argued that the delivery was a mistake as he had ordered Butterfly, tobacco laced with a synthetic chemical that produced a similar narcotic effect to cannabis.
Meanwhile, Ramadass contended that he did not know the nature of the drugs delivered, adding he had already delivered three bags of the Butterfly tobacco to others before handing one over to Raj.
Raj was sentenced to the mandatory death sentence while Ramadass to life imprisonment and the mandatory minimum of 15 strokes of the cane in June 2020.
The courts heard that one inmate named Mark Kalaivanan Tamilarasan was also in Senoko on the same day to pick up cannabis and chewable tobacco but received Butterfly instead.
The Court of Appeal accepted the two men’s appeals and overturned their convictions on Friday, reported The Straits Times.
“In our judgment, the fact that Mark had effectively confessed to having at least attempted to commit a serious offence is a weighty factor in evaluating his evidence,” said the court.
The apex court also said the trial judge made a mistake in rejecting Mark’s testimony because he and Raj “had more than ample opportunity to collude and manufacture the story.”
In a separate incident on May 18, the Immigration and Checkpoints Authority (ICA) foiled an attempt to smuggle drugs in an arriving Malaysia-registered vehicle passing through the Woodlands Checkpoint.
About 17,704g of heroin, 261g of ‘ice’ and 2g of ‘Ecstasy’ tablets, worth close to S$1,295,000, was seized by officers.
The drugs seized are sufficient to feed the addiction of about 8,430 heroin abusers and 150 ‘Ice’ abusers for a week, noted ICA.
Under Section 5 of the Misuse of Drugs Act, it is an offence for a person, on his or her own behalf, or on behalf of any other person, whether or not that other person is in Singapore, to traffic in a controlled drug, offer to traffic in a controlled drug; or to do or offer to do any act preparatory to or for the purpose of trafficking in a controlled drug.
If a person is found guilty of trafficking more than 15g of pure heroin (diamorphine) or 250g of methamphetamine, he or she may face the mandatory death penalty./TISG
Death penalty for M’sian who delivered bag of heroin, S’porean recipient gets life sentence