JUDGMENT

Vincent Ng J:

Before this court the abovenamed accused was charged, to wit:

Bahawa kamu pada 16/9/97 jam lebih kurang 1.50 petang di Sekatan Jalanraya di hadapan Balai Polis Simpang Empat, di dalam Daerah Kangar, di dalam Negeri Perlis didapati dibawah kawalan kamu mengedar dadah iaitu ganja seberat 2,870 gram yang mana menyalahi peraturan di bawah Seksyen 39B(1)(a) Akta Dadah Berbahaya, 1952 (Pindaan 1983). Oleh yang demikian kamu telah melakukan suatu kesalahan yang boleh dihukum di bawah Seksyen 39B(2) akta yang sama.

The facts of prosecution's case was elicited principally from Insp. Su That a/l Frat Kong (PW5) during examination in chief. He gave the following account of what happened.

On 16 September 1997 at about 12.15pm, acting on information, he led a police party comprising seven police personnel namely, Insp. Shaiful Azmi, D/SM 50934 Mohd. Nor, D/K 97660 Ku Ahmad Zamri, D/Kpl Wan Zin Wan Sulaiman (PW7), D/Kpl Baderi, D/Kpl Nicolas and Kpl. Musa to Balai Polis Simpang Empat, to conduct a road block in front of Simpang Empat, Perlis, Police Station. At about 1.50pm he stopped a Proton Wira car bearing registration No. WDV 3265 (P12) heading towards Alor Setar from the direction of Kangar. He then instructed that the car be driven into the Balai Polis Simpang Empat for inspection. There were two Chinese males in the car. The accused was at the wheel and one named Foo Fang Meng (PW6) was seated at the front passenger seat. On frisking the accused, he found nothing incriminating on this person. But when Foo Fang Meng was frisked by D/K Ku Ahmad Zamri, the latter recovered from his right front trousers pocket, a transparent plastic packet, within which were two straw tubes containing white powdery substance suspected to be heroin. The plastic packet was in turn placed in an empty (20 sticks) Dunhill cigarette box. As instructed by him the accused opened the boot of P12 by lifting the boot lever.

Upon inspection of the boot, PW5 found two plastic bags (P5A and P6A), a luggage bag of clothes and an open cardboard box, also containing clothes. P5A is a blue-black 'Cardini' plastic bag containing two packets of compact dried plant material suspected to be cannabis (P5F and P5J) wrapped in two pieces of Siamese character newspapers (P5C and P5G). And, P6A is a green 'Mun On Taylor' plastic bag, wherein he found another two packets (P6F and P6J) wrapped in Siamese and Chinese character newspapers respectively (P6C1-3 and P6G) containing compact dried plant material, also suspected to be cannabis. In both P5A and P6A but on top of P5F, P5J, P6F and P6J were men's clothes. When the drug exhibits were opened, the accused, who was beside him, appeared frightened. When the passenger compartment of P12 was checked by three members of the raiding party, they found nothing incriminating. Besides P5A and P6A and their contents, PW5 also seized certain personal belongings of the accused, including, one Motorola handphone (P13), one N.E.C. pager (P13A), and a wallet (P13B) containing: cash of RM103 (P13C); six credit and A.T.M cards (P13D1-P13D6); an identity card; a Public Bank Berhad cheque book (P13E); and a Maybank Savings Account book (P13F). A search list (P14) was issued on the items recovered. When P5F, P5J, P6F and P6J were weighed in the Simpang Empat, Police Station, they gave a rough total weight of 2,870 grams. He also recovered one ignition and two other keys (P15A to P15C) and handed them over to the investigating officer C/Insp. Mohd. Ismail bin Ibrahim (PW8).

The testimony of D/Kpl Wan Zin Wan Sulaiman (PW7) supported in material particulars the story of PW5, save that he added the following further particulars. P5A and P6A was taken out from the central portion of the boot of P12 when he made a search, under PW5' s instructions. Upon opening P5A he found a yellow shirt and a pair of green trousers (P5K and P5L respectively). P5F and P5J were together wrapped in a transparent plastic piece (P5B). P6A which w