SHAH ALAM, July 24 — A retired soldier known as ‘Dr Ganja’ escaped the gallows today after the High Court amended the 16 charges against him for trafficking 77.48493 kg and 14.647 litres of drugs to possession.
Captain (R) Amiruddin @ Nadarajan Abdullah, 64, also faced 18 counts of cultivating marijuana plants, four counts of possessing marijuana and one for ingesting the drug.
Judge Julia Ibrahim handed down the nine-year jail sentence for the 39 charges for the offences which took place in a house in Kampung Delek Dalam, Klang at 12.30pm on May 26, 2017.
Amiruddin was charged under Section 6 of the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952, as well as Sections 39A(1), 39A(2) and 15(1)(a) of the same Act.
He was sentenced to five years imprisonment for each of the charges under Section 6 and Section 39A(1) and nine years for the Section 39A(2) offence and six months for the one under Section 15(1)(a).
Judge Julia ordered the sentences to run concurrently starting from the date of his arrest on May 26, 2017, and for him to be released from prison today, as he had already served a third of his sentence.
In her final judgement, Julia said, as a former army personnel Amiruddin surely knew of the existence of the Dangerous Drugs Act but he was desperate to use the marijuana as an alternative treatment for his ailment.
“However, let this be a deterrent to others who have similar ideas (to use illegal drugs for treatments),” she said.
A total of 17 prosecution and five defence witnesses testified in the trial, which started on April 8, 2019.
The prosecution was led by deputy public prosecutor Raja Zaizul Faridah Raja Zaharudin, while Amiruddin was defended by lawyers Sangeet Kaur Deo and Pravin Mahentharan.
— Bernama
