High Court judge Azman Abdullah said the prosecution had failed to establish a case against the five accused.

He said it was unsafe to rely solely on the testimony of key prosecution witness, S Duraiselvam, who led police to discover the skeletal remains of the dead men in a shallow grave.

The judge ordered that the five accused be acquitted without their defence being called. They are: former Asst Supt S Selvakumar, 45, brothers N Rajasakanan, 43, Sureshkannah, 42 and Thanabalan, 35, and R Veeramuthu, 56.

The brothers work as scrap metal dealers while Veeramuthu was a lorry driver.

They were accused of killing K Thinesh, M Tansewaran and P Kartisan in an oil palm plantation at Jalan Seremban-Mantin in February 2015.

The victims’ families lodged police reports on their disappearance in 2015.

The five accused and Duraiselvam were arrested three years later for gang-related offences but further investigations appeared to link them to the murders.

Duraiselvam was not charged but held under a preventive law for two years from 2018 and turned prosecution witness.

Selvakumar was represented by KL Chee while Haresh Mahadevan and Ramzani Idris appeared for Sureshkannah and Thanabalan. Veeramuthu and Rajasakanan were represented by Paul Krishnaraja and Amy Chong.

Deputy public prosecutor Rahimah Abd Majib appeared for the prosecution.