JUDGMENT

Mokhtar Sidin JCA:

The appellant appealed against the sentence imposed on him by the High Court when he pleaded guilty to an amended charge under s. 12(2) of the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952 (the Act) which is punishable under s. 39A(2) of the Act. He was sentenced to life imprisonment and ten strokes of the rotan. We have dismissed the appeal earlier and we now give our reasons for doing so.

The facts of the case. The wife of the appellant, Lew Sin Kiow, was the owner of the semi - detached house No. 39 Jalan Hujan Emas, Taman OUG, Kuala Lumpur. She and her family stayed at another semi - detached house No. 41, but this house was not attached to house No. 39. Apparently, the two houses were separated by a fence. On 25 March 1997, she entered into a sale and purchase agreement to sell house No. 39 to one Chan Poh Lan. Chan Poh Lan took the keys to the house from Lew Sin Kiow to do some renovations and when the renovations were completed the said Chan Poh Lan returned the keys to the appellant's wife because the said Chan Poh Lan had not paid the full purchase price. Only on 20 August 1997, the said Chan Poh Lan obtained the keys to the house from her solicitors. The appellant bought a BMW car bearing registration number WCV 2088 from Aw Ka Theam sometime at the end of 1995 or early 1996. The said Aw Ka Theam handed over the registration card together with the transfer form (Form K3) to the appellant to enable him to register the car in his name. For some reason best known to him the appellant did not do the necessary transfer to have the car registered in his name.

On 1 June 1997, ASP Perumal s/o Alagan received information in respect of drug activities involving the two houses stated above and a car at Jalan Hujan Emas, Taman OUG, Jalan Kelang Lama, Kuala Lumpur. He then organized a police raiding party which was divided into three groups. At about 9pm on that day, the police party arrived at the scene of incident. They identified houses No. 39 and 41 Jalan Hujan Emas and carried out observation on those two houses for about 15 - 20 minutes. The police noticed that the car No. WCV 2088 was parked at the porch of house No. 39. The gate to this house was closed. Only the lower part of the house was lighted. The police also observed that the upper and lower parts of house No. 41 were lighted and at the porch there were two cars bearing registration Nos. WBD 22 and WCX 3015 parked there. The gate to this house was also closed. The police party which was divided into three groups stationed themselves at various points already identified by them. At about 9.40pm the three groups entered the two houses simultaneously and they identified themselves by shouting "Polis, Polis, Polis ". ASP Perumal saw the appellant who was only wearing short pants running from the front part of house No. 41 towards the wall that separated house No. 41 and house No. 43. The police gave chase and caught the appellant. In house No. 41 the police arrested another male Chinese person who was attempting to run upstairs. The appellant, when he was cornered by the police, took out something from the pocket of his short pants and threw it on the ground. The police recovered that article which happened to be the key to car No. WCV 2088. The police conducted a search on the car. Inside the car the police recovered the registration card of the car and a document from Kurnia Insurance. Using the same key the police attempted to open the boot of the car but was unsuccessful. The police then asked the appellant to open the boot. He refused to do but after some persuasion he opened the boot with the same key. Inside the boot the police recovered a dark - blue - coloured bag with the zip half opened. The police took out the bag from the boot of the car and placed it on the floor of the porch where the bag was opened. This was done in front of the appellant. Inside the bag, the police found 40 plastic packets which the police suspected to contain heroin. The police