Yogesan Krishnan, 30, was charged under Section 39B(1)(a) of the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952, which provides for the death penalty, or life imprisonment and no less than 12 strokes of the rotan.

In his judgment, Justice Atan Mustaffa Yussof Ahmad said the prosecution had failed to prove its case beyond a reasonable doubt.

The prosecution argued that a police officer had removed a light pink plastic bag containing the drugs from Yogesan’s right front pocket. However, Yogesan denied that the plastic bag was ever in his pocket.

Yogesan testified that he had gone to a bus stop near Jalan Pandan on the instructions of a man he knew as “Yuki”, who handed him a red plastic bag through the rear window of a maroon Suzuki Swift. He said he was arrested about a minute later.

The court also heard from another defence witness, Zulkifli Ishak, 39, who said he was known as “Juki” and had been arrested by the same police officer on the same night.

Zulkifli testified that he had been arrested with a similar-looking bag and was later taken by police in his maroon Suzuki Swift to the Pandan area.

Atan said Zulkifli’s evidence strengthened Yogesan’s account, as “Juki” was phonetically similar with “Yuki”. The judge also noted that the police officer had earlier denied that any individual named “Yuki” was present at the scene during Yogesan’s arrest.

However, the officer’s arrest report confirmed that Zulkifli had been arrested about four hours earlier that same night with a plastic bag bearing an almost similar description.

The court also conducted a fitting demonstration on Jan 22, during which Yogesan wore the shorts he had on during the night of his arrest and was asked to place the prosecution’s exhibit, the bag, into his right front pocket.

Atan said the court observed that the bag could not fit into the pocket, and while the prosecution argued that the exhibit used was not in the original packaging, the judge said the key point was that the exhibit could not fit into the pocket.

He said the prosecution’s case of physical possession depended entirely on the evidence of the police officer, who had been shown to have given false and material evidence. “There was no fingerprint, DNA or other forensic evidence linking Yogesan to the plastic bag,” Atan said.

Atan said the defence had raised a reasonable doubt on three main issues, which were the presence of Zulkifli and his maroon Suzuki Swift at the scene, the similar bags in two arrests by the same officer on the same night, and the result of the in-court fitting demonstration.

He said these doubts prevented the court from reaching a firm and lasting conviction as to the truth of the charge.

Deputy public prosecutor Nur Natasha Saharuddin prosecuted, while lawyers G Shanmugam and S Selvanteran appeared for the accused.