A three-men bench led by Chief Justice Sundaresh Menon overturned Punithan Genasan’s conviction, the Straits Times reported.

Punithan had been alleged to have been the mastermind of a drug deal involving pure heroin, also known as diamorphine, in 2011. Two other men, V Shanmugam Veloo, a Malaysian, and Suief Ismail, a Singaporean, were later convicted for the deal.

Punithan was alleged to have introduced Shanmugam to Suief at a McDonald’s carpark to facilitate the transaction.

However, the appellate court said there was a reasonable doubt whether this alleged meeting took place.

“This was the link which the prosecution had to prove to sustain the charge because the alleged common intention to traffic in drugs stemmed from that meeting,” the judgment read.

During the investigations, Shanmugam had identified Punithan as the purported mastermind behind the transaction.

Shanmugam and Suief were convicted in 2015. Shanmugam, then 30, was sentenced to life imprisonment with 15 strokes of the cane while Suief, then 46, was sentenced to death.

Punithan was later arrested in Malaysia and taken to Singapore in January 2016 to stand trial. He was found guilty and sentenced to death in 2018.