Judicial Commissioner D Suria Kumar said that the prosecution had failed to prove that Shah Baba, 49, and Indonesian Zamri Dalit, 51, had exclusive custody and control of the drugs found in a room of a house in Jalan Junir, in Muar, Johor.

Zamri had come to stay in Shah’s house a day before he was scheduled to board a ferry to Indonesia.

According to the facts of the case, during a raid, the authorities arrested the two men in the living room and then conducted a search in the room said to be occupied by Shah.

Shah’s lawyers disputed this assertion by the prosecution.

Suria said the authorities left with the men and the drugs but did not padlock the main door to the house.

However, the investigating officer who returned to the house with a photographer, later testified that the house was locked.

The judge ruled that there could have been a possibility of access by a third party to the room and the prosecution also failed to explain who else had keys to the house.

The two were alleged to have committed the offence at 11.35am on July 23, 2019.

Deputy public prosecutor Nur Sulehan Abd Rahman appeared for the prosecution while Shah was represented by lawyers Haresh Mahadevan and Ramzani Idris.

Lawyers Selvi Sandrasegaran and Ho Zhi Qian acted for Zamri.