PENDAKWA RAYA Pendakwa Raya TERTUDUH JAILANI BIN SARIPAN
Catchwords
Criminal Law — Dangerous drugs — Trafficking — 1244.09 grams of Cannabis — Possession — Knowledge, custody and control — Drugs discovered in a chest freezer in the kitchen of the accused’s residence — Accused arrested outside the house and guided police to the freezer — Whether accused had exclusive custody and control — Whether knowledge could be inferred from the act of concealment — Presumption of trafficking — Whether rebutted on a balance of probabilities — Dangerous Drugs Act 1952, ss 37(da), 39B(1)(a) & 39B(2) Evidence — Information leading to discovery — Admissibility — Accused provided information and guided police to a specific chest freezer where drugs were hidden under fish bait — Whether information related distinctly to the fact discovered — Evidence Act 1950, s 27 Evidence — Witness — Credibility — Contradictory testimonies — Neighbour (SP6) testified accused lived alone while niece (SP5) claimed third parties resided in the house — Relative's testimony regarding visibility of third parties from the roadside — Site visit by court — Observations during site visit contradicting witness testimony — Whether testimony of relative was selective and lacked candour — Whether defence of third-party access was an afterthought Evidence — Adverse inference — Failure to call material witness — Defence claimed chest freezer belonged to a third party and that another person held material documents regarding a fishing raft license — Failure to call said witnesses to testify — Whether adverse inference attracted — Evidence Act 1950, s 114(g) Evidence — Documentary evidence — Admissibility — Photographs of fishing raft and expired license put in for identification — Failure to prove documents in accordance with law — Whether documents could be considered as evidence — Evidence Act 1950, s 32 Criminal Procedure — Trial — Site visit — Court conducted visit to the locus in quo — Purpose of verifying accessibility to the house and line of sight from the roadside — Use of site visit findings to evaluate credibility of witness testimony and feasibility of defence version of events
Practice Areas
Judges (1)
Parties (2)
Judgment
Read the full judgment on the official Malaysia Courts portal.
Read on eJudgmentSource: eJudgment (ja-45a-64-04-2022)