KOTA KINABALU: A 58-year-old Sabah civil servant was freed of two counts of rape of an underage girl after the prosecution dropped the charges.
Kota Kinabalu Sessions Court Judge Puan Elsie Primus accepted the dropping of charges against Ag Salleh Kurus after Deputy Public Prosecutor Mas Izzaty Lokman informed the court on the withdrawal of the charges.
The court in accepting the withdrawal also ordered the RM10,000 bail be returned to Ag Salleh.
A tearful Ag Salleh, a staff member of the Sabah Drainage and Irrigation Department in Beaufort district, thanked the judge and his lawyer Datuk Seri K. Rakhbir Singh outside court following his discharge.
In October 2021, Ag Salleh was charged under Section 376 (2) of the Penal Code on two counts of raping a 14-year-old girl.
In the first charge he was accused of raping the girl inside a car parked at a seaside car park in Kuala Penyu, Beaufort, at 6pm in May 2021 and in the second charge, Ag Salleh had allegedly raped the same victim on May 14 at 7pm at a motel room in Kuala Penyu, Beaufort.
The prosecution had called one witness when the trial began July 5, 2021, however, Ag Salleh's lawyer Rakhbir made a written official representation to the Sabah state director of Prosecution putting forward grounds for them to consider exercising their discretion to withdraw the two charges in the interest of justice.
