The report said the prosecution had appealed against the High Court’s decision in May 2021 to acquit Mangalagiri Dhruva Kumar of trafficking at least 22.73g of diamorphine or heroin. — Reuters pic
SINGAPORE, Oct 14 — A Malaysian bus driver accused of trafficking heroin to a woman outside a supermarket in 2014 had his acquittal of the capital charge upheld by the Singapore Court of Appeal, CNA reported today.
The report said the prosecution had appealed against the High Court’s decision in May 2021 to acquit Mangalagiri Dhruva Kumar of trafficking at least 22.73g of diamorphine or heroin.
However, a three-judge panel comprising the Chief Justice Sundaresh Menon, Justices Judith Prakash, and Chao Hick Tin dismissed the appeal this afternoon.
Speaking through his lawyer, Mangalagiri was reportedly said that he is “very thankful to God and the system in Singapore”.
The report said Mangalagiri was accused of handing a bag containing heroin to a woman on May 16, 2014, outside Sheng Siong Supermarket at Woodlands Centre Road.
The woman then handed the drugs to a man with Central Narcotics Bureau (CNB) officers arresting both later that same day.
They were tried and the woman was sentenced to life imprisonment for trafficking at least 22.73g of heroin, while the man was convicted in 2016 of possessing the heroin for the purposes of trafficking.
He was sentenced to death and executed after his appeal was dismissed in 2018, said the report. — Bernama