However, he was sentenced to two years in jail after he pleaded guilty to another charge of possessing 7gm of the same drug.

Sivabalan Sugumaran was found with 186.73gm of cannabis in 45 small packets in a whiskey case in his dorm at Limkokwing University on Sept 18, 2017. He was also found with 7gm of the same drug in his pocket when arrested.

He subsequently pleaded guilty to being in possession of two packets of cannabis amounting to 7gm in his pockets but claimed trial to being in possession of the 45 packets of drugs in the whiskey case, which he had claimed were not his.

The first charge was under Section 6 of the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952 and the second was under Section 39A (2) of the same act for possession of 186.73gm of the same drug.

Section 6 of the act carries a RM20,000 fine or a maximum five years’ jail, while Section 39A(2) carries a life sentence and a minimum of 10 strokes of the rotan.

Judge Saiful Akmal Mohd Said ruled that the prosecution had failed to prove a prima facie case over the 45 packets of cannabis found in the whiskey container.

He said based on police’s forensic evidence, Sivabalan’s fingerprints were nowhere to be found on the whiskey container or on any packet of the drugs.

Saiful said more than one person had access to the dorm, based on police evidence of a jacket which had the DNA of three different persons on it.

Saiful then sentenced Sivabalan to two years in jail for the possession of cannabis weighing 7gm, ordering it to run from the date of the arrest and acquitted him on the charge of having in his possession 186.73gm of the same drug.

Sivabalan’s lawyer E Gnasegaran said his client had served more than two years’ in jail. As such, he would be released from the Kajang Prison where he has been held since Sept 18, 2017.

Audrey Wee and Yaashnipriya S Baskaren also appeared for Sivabalan, while deputy public prosecutor Nurul Faraheen Yahya prosecuted.