Court of Appeal Upholds Acquittal on 122 Cheating, Forgery Charges

The Court of Appeal on Wednesday (Oct 28) upheld the acquittal of a businessman on 122 counts of cheating and using forged documents linked to medical equipment supply investments worth more than RM6 million in 2015, Bernama reported.

A three-member panel of Justices Datuk Azman Abdullah, Datuk Hayatul Akmal Abdul Aziz and K. Muniandy in Putrajaya dismissed the prosecution’s final appeal against the acquittal of N. Narendran, 46, who was freed by the Ipoh High Court in January 2022.

Court of Appeal – Cheating charges

Delivering the unanimous decision, Justice Muniandy said the panel was satisfied that the High Court judicial commissioner had properly assessed the burden of proof and the legal principles that applied.

He said three factors made the original Sessions Court conviction unsafe: the absence of mens rea, or criminal intent, at the start of the transactions; material contradictions in the charges; and a lack of forensic evidence proving forgery.

The panel found no error of fact or law by the judicial commissioner that would justify appellate intervention, and held that the High Court had correctly identified fundamental flaws in the prosecution’s case. The discharge and acquittal order on all 122 charges was affirmed.

Justice Muniandy also noted that the forgery charges were closely tied to the main cheating allegations, which the prosecution failed to prove, so those charges “collapsed on their own”.

Sessions Court Had Jailed Him 10 Years

On April 9, 2021, the Ipoh Sessions Court found Narendran guilty on all charges and sentenced him to 10 years in prison and 24 strokes of the cane. The High Court overturned that conviction and acquitted him on appeal in January 2022.

The 122 Charges

Narendran had faced 105 counts of cheating under Section 420 of the Penal Code. He was accused of deceiving a man into believing that state government purchase orders for investments in supplying disposable medical equipment to a hospital in Ipoh, Perak, were genuine.

The man was allegedly induced to hand over cheques and cash of between RM20,000 and RM350,000 for investments that did not exist, at four locations between May and December 2015.

He also faced 17 counts under Section 471 of the Penal Code of using forged documents involving the same man and transactions. He was accused of using several forged Perak state government purchase orders as genuine at Ganang Resources in the Greentown Business Centre between April and October 2015.

Deputy Public Prosecutor How May Ling appeared for the prosecution, while Narendran was represented by S. Meharaj, Nur Syazwani Hassan and R. Vikraman, Malay Mail reported.

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