Edgar Joseph Jr SCJ:

The respondent was prosecuted in the High Court of the Federa1 Territory before Mr. Justice Mokhtar Abdullah upon the following charge:

That you, on 28 March 1987 at about 2.40 p.m., at the Stadium Negara Car Park, Jalan Stadium, in the district of Kuala Lumpur, Wilayah Persekutuan, did traffick in a dangerous drug, to wit 578.94g. of heroin, and you have thereby committed an offence under s. 39B(1)(a) Dangerous Drugs Act 1952 (Revised 1980) and punishable under s. 39B(2) of the said Act.

According to the evidence led by the prosecution, at about 2.15 p.m. on 28 March 1987, acting on information received, a party of police officers headed by ASP Yusoff bin Mohamad, had laid an ambush at the Stadium Negara Car Park, Jalan Stadium, Kuala Lumpur. Some twenty five minutes later, a Honda motor car driven by the respondent had arrived at the car park and, as soon as he had pulled up and switched off his engine, ASP Yusoff gave a pre-arranged signal to his party of men, whereupon they pounced upon the respondent while he was still seated in the driver's seat, placed him under arrest, and very soon after that, handcuffed him and took possession of the car keys.

An immediate search of the Honda by ASP Yusoff resulted in the recovery from the footwell of the rear nearside of passenger's seat, a plastic bag inside which was another plastic bag containing six newspaper packages each of which contained a pink granular substance.

The Honda was then driven to the Narcotics Division Office by a member of the ambush team, where it was subjected to a second search, resulting in the recovery of the following articles:

(1) a newspaper package containing a pink granular substance from the glove compartment;

(2) registration card and car licence of the Honda, both in the name of one Lim Hooi Yong, from the glove compartment;

(3) several business cards bearing the name James Goh Liong Sin from the glove compartment; and

(4) a cigarette packet containing six cigarettes on the dash board.

The evidence led by the prosecution also disclosed that:

(a) the Honda though registered in the name of Lim Hooi Yong, actually belonged to James Goh Liong Sin;

(b) the hotel register of the Emerald Hotel, indicated that one Koay Nian Taik was registered as the occupant of room 414 from 7.50 p.m. on 27 March 1987 until 1.50 p.m. 28 March 1987 and the Honda was registered against that room; and

(c) during interrogation by ASP Yusoff, the respondent had said that James Goh was at the Emerald Hotel.

When the pink powdery substance found in the seven newspaper packages (six recovered from a plastic bag in the footwell of the rear nearside passenger's seat and one from the glove compartment) was analysed by the Government Chemist it was found to contain, in all, 578.94 g of heroin, a dangerous drug within the meaning of the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952. It was this substance which constituted the subject matter of the offence charged. The cigarette packet contained 6 cigarettes, each of which the Chemist had found to contain traces of heroin.

At the trial, Counsel for the respondent had, in the course of his cross examination of the investigation officer Inspector Hassan Jalaludin bin Abdul Malik, attempted to introduce an exculpatory cautioned statement of the respondent recorded by Inspector Lai Joo Wah who, however, was not called by the prosecution. The attempt was resisted by the learned Deputy who appeared for the prosecution, reliance being placed upon the Federal Court decision of Mohd. Noor bin Jantan v. PP [1979] 2 MLJ 289 where Suffian LP speaking for that Court had to answer the question:

whether or not the defence is entitled in law to cause the prosecution to tender as evidence the cautioned statement recorded from an accused person during the course of the case for the prosecution when the prosecution does not intend to introduce it as part of the prosecution case?

His Lordship answered the question thuswise:

The prosecution is fr