Judge Rohani Ismail ruled that the prosecution failed to prove a prima facie case against K Kaviwarman, 29, N Gobinath, 30, and S Dinesh Kumar, 32.

“As such, the court frees the accused without calling for their defence,” Harian Metro reported the judge as saying in her ruling today.

The three men were charged with distributing 174.8g of heroin and 52.8g of monoacetylmorphine at 2.30pm in a back lane at Dataran Sentral, Seremban on July 3, 2020.

The charges were framed under Section 39B(1)(a) of the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952, punishable under Section 39B(2) of the same Act read together with Section 34 of the Penal Code.

If convicted, they would have been liable to be sentenced to death, or jailed for between 30 and 40 years and a minimum 15 strokes of the rotan.

The prosecution was represented by deputy public prosecutor Khairunnisa Hazwani Omar.

Kaviwarman was represented by lawyers S Kartikeyan and M Gopinathan. Gobinath and Dinesh were represented by lawyer Chee Kuat Lim.