RK Nathan J:

The Charge

The accused was charged with an offence under s. 39B(1)(a) of the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952for trafficking in 10,384 grammes of cannabis and punishable with death under s. 39B(2) of the same Act. The offence was alleged to have been committed on 22 April 1997 at about 7.25pm near the Edaran Automobil National (EON), Bulat Dumbar, Lengkok Dumbar in the district of Laut Timor, Pulau Pinang.

History Of The Case

This case initially commenced before Wan Adnan J on 7 December 1999 who heard the evidence of the Police Photographer (SP1) and the Chemist (SP2). The evidence of the Raiding Officer (SP3) was only part-heard when the learned judge was transferred. Hasan Lah J was then set to hear this case but he too went on a transfer. Tee Ah Sing J then took over the matter and ordered the case to commence de novo. Tee Ah Sing J was then transferred to court 2 and when I took over this case, parties by consent asked me not to hear the matter de novobut to accept the evidence of SP1 and SP2 and to start afresh with the evidence of SP3. The reasons given were that the Chemist's evidence was lengthy and protracted and had taken many days with 35 exhibits having already been tendered. If this court was to hear the evidence de novoan order would have to be made to return the exhibits and then to re-tender the same all over again. A further consideration was the fact that the accused had been on remand since the date of his arrest on 22 April 1997. Counsel for the accused also pleaded that this was an assigned case. Having considered all these issues I agreed not to hear the case de novobut to start afresh with the evidence of the raiding officer and that I would rely on the evidence recorded previously in respect of the evidence of SP1 and SP2.

Facts

The evidence of SP3 superintendent Ramli bin Din was that he headed a raiding party that arrested the accused after an ambush. He denied a suggestion that the accused had alighted from the car he was driving when he was arrested. The next witness Insp Raja Hafiz (SP4) testified that he led a team of policemen who laid an ambush at a bus stop at Bukit Dumbar. The three other teams were led by Sup Ramli (SP3), ASP Rahman and ASP Teoh Paik Leng. Altogether there were eleven of them in the raiding party. There were five in his team and they were on three motorcycles. At about 7.25pm the accused driving a BMW bearing registration no. PDJ 31 drove up and stopped at the bus stop. Insp Raja Hafiz then informed ASP Ramli of this through his walkie-talkie. He was asked to follow the accused. The accused then drove towards EON along Bukit Dumbar and stopped by the roadside. At that moment, the other two motorcycles blocked the accused from the front and from the rear, whilst Insp. Hafiz rode-up to the driver's side. He then identified himself as a police officer. During the arrest a scuffle ensued and the accused was slightly injured. By then Supt Ramli had joined them and discovered in the front passenger seat a red plastic package containing what was suspected to be ganja. On examining the booth of the car they discovered another plastic package also containing similar substance. Supt Ramli then arrested the accused and drove the said car to the police station where subsequently he made a police report. When ASP Wan Abdul Rashid the initial investigating officer of the case retired, SP5, Chief Insp Sivarajah took over as the investigating officer. Whilst he was not involved in the investigations proper, he took possession of the drugs involved in this case from the chemist after it was sent for analysis. The sixth witness was the records officer from the Jabatan Pengangkutan, Pulau Pinang. From the records in his possession he testified that the last registered owner of motorcar PDJ 31 was one Teoh Boey Eng. The seventh witness for the prosecution was ASP Teoh. He was called merely to show he had custody of the car in question until produced in court. The next witness call