High Court acquits duo because of identity confusion

KUALA LUMPUR: A pair of identical twins was acquitted and discharged by the High Court of drug trafficking due to difficulty in identifying which of the two was in possession of the drugs five years ago.

Justice Datuk Zaharah Ibrahim, who described the case as unique, said R. Sathis Raj and R. Sabarish Raj, 27, who looked alike and had identical deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA), made it difficult to differentiate between them, though there was no doubt one of them was the culprit.

“My job, as required by the law, is to determine whether the prosecution has succeeded in establishing a prima facie against the two accused. In this case, both are identical twins.

“Arresting officer Chief Insp N. Sekaran, when identifying the first twin, was sceptical but when asked by counsel, said that he needed some time and yet was still not so sure when identifying the first twin.

“A member in the arresting team, Kpl Mohamad Sidek Paiman, at first could not identify, but later asked for both the twins to stand and said there was a difference in their height. However, he identified the first twin as the one wearing spectacles.

“The question is, which of the twins was arrested first. Is it the one wearing the spectacles, because at the time of arrest both were not wearing spectacles.

“Mohamad Sidek said he only identified them from the shirts they wore that day,” she added.

Sathis and Sabarish were charged with their brother, R. Deva Raj, 43, now deceased, with two counts of trafficking in 166,336gm of cannabis and 1,762gm of raw opium at a house in Jalan SS 2/19, Petaling Jaya, at about 4.05pm on Aug 5, 2003.

Zaharah said that although one of them was indeed in possession of the drugs, she was acquitting both because she could not afford to send the wrong person to the gallows.

After Zaharah delivered her judgment, the twins, cried and hugged each other.

DPP Rosidah Abu Bakar prosecuted while counsel Gurbachan Singh appeared for the twins. — Bernama