Kishor Kumar Raguan, a Malaysian who delivered a bag of more than 900g of powdery substance into Singapore via his motorcycle, was sentenced to death for drug trafficking.
The bag that he brought in was analysed to contain about 36.05 grams of heroin.
Under the law, if the amount of heroin being trafficked is more than 15 grams, it calls for the death penalty.
The recipient of the drugs, 61-year-old Singaporean Pung Ah Kiang, was sentenced to life in prison for possession of drugs for the purpose of trafficking.
Thought bag contained “stones”
High Court Justice Audrey Lim said in her written grounds released yesterday (4 February) that she found that both men knew that the bundles contained heroin.
She had rejected Kishor’s defence of thinking that the bag contained “stones”, and she said that he had failed to show that he genuinely believed the bundles contained something else.
Kishor was found to have been told that the items to be delivered were “kallu”, which he was aware referred to heroin.
Pung’s claim of not knowing what was in the bag and that he was merely keeping it temporarily for his brother-in-law was also rejected by Justice Lim.
Assisted CNB
She sentenced him to life imprisonment after being certified as having assisted CNB in disrupting drug trafficking operations.
In sentencing Kishor to death, Justice Lim said that “as the prosecution did not issue Kishor with a certificate of substantive assistance, I passed the mandatory death sentence on him”.
The bundles of drugs were brought into Singapore on 29 July 2016 and delivered to Pung near his home at a Paya Lebar condominium.
He was then arrested by CNB officers whilst en route back to his condo, before being escorted back to his home where officers found more drugs.
Kishor’s DNA was also found on the bundle of delivered drugs.