By K.C. Vijayan
The Straits Times
Monday, Mar 11, 2013

SINGAPORE – DEATH row inmate Mervin Singh was spared the gallows on Friday when the Court of Appeal quashed his conviction for drug trafficking.

The 37-year-old had been sentenced to hang after being caught with a pink box containing nine packets of heroin.

He denied knowing that the drugs were inside, saying he thought he was transporting a consignment of contraband cigarettes. On Friday, his four-year ordeal came to an end after the Appeals Court ruled in his favour.

The inmate looked calm when his conviction was set aside. “I slept well last night,” he said as he was being taken away, and thanked his lawyer Selva Naidu.

Singh was caught with 186.62g of heroin on him at a Housing Board block in Tampines in November 2008.

His lawyers argued that he had gone there to collect contraband cigarettes and…