Another Malaysian escapes gallows in Singapore

 

50-year-old Mangalagiri Dhruva Kumar, a bus driver, has become the second man to be freed of drug charges in Singapore after Beh Chew Boo who was acquitted in March. (AFP pic)

PETALING JAYA: Another Malaysian in Singapore has been spared the gallows for drug offences after he was acquitted by the High Court today.

The Straits Times reported that bus driver Mangalagiri Dhruva Kumar, 50, who had been accused of driving into the city-state on May 16, 2014 and handing a bag containing two packets of heroin to a woman, Shanti Krishnan, was now a free man.

High Court Judge Valerie Thean said the only evidence to show that Mangalagiri had supplied Shanti with the drugs was her testimony and ruled that this was not reliable.

Thean said Shanti failed to recall the various events involving the transaction while her testimony in court contradicted the statements she gave to narcotics officers days after her arrest on May 16, 2014.

Shanti had been arrested by narcotics officers while in possession of S$8,200 in cash. Also arrested was Zainudin Mohamed, to whom Shanti had passed the drugs.

She later identified Mangalagiri as the driver of a green and white bus from whom she collected the drugs. Shanti and Zainudin were both convicted in September 2016 with the former serving a life sentence and the latter sent to the gallows.

Meanwhile, Mangalagiri was arrested on Sept 23, 2015 at the Woodlands Checkpoint. He had maintained that he did not know Shanti or passed the drugs to her.

While phone records showed a total of six calls between the pair on May 16, 2014 and April 19 the same year, Thean said this only showed that the pair knew each other at most.

Although this cast doubt on Mangalagiri’s credibility, it did not prove the prosecution’s case, she said.

“In my judgment, the accused’s guilt on the charge framed has not been proven beyond a reasonable doubt,” she said.

Mangalagiri is the second Malaysian to escape the gallows in about two months, after 38-year-old Beh Chew Boo who was acquitted of five charges of bringing drugs to Singapore back in March.

Beh was caught with drugs under the seat of a motorcycle he had borrowed from a friend in 2016. He was sentenced to death by the High Court in early 2020, but the death penalty was overturned in October when his appeal was accepted by a three-judge panel.

On March 2, the same panel of judges — Sundaresh Menon, Tay Yong Kwang and Steven Chong — also set aside the prosecution’s application to charge Beh with four lighter offences. He spent 53 months in prison. - FMT