A 31-year old Tamil school teacher was today acquitted by the Kuala Kangsar Sessions Court, in Perak, over a charge of retaining and obtaining UPSR Science paper on her mobile phone in 2014.

P Mageswari was acquitted at the end of the defence stage by Sessions Judge Johari Hassan after the defence successfully raised a reasonable doubt.

According to Mageswari's lawyer, M Kula Segaran, the defence had brought in world-renowned cyber security and digital forensic expert Fong Choong Fook to testify in court on the evidence by the prosecution, based on an analysis done by the Malaysian Communication and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) on Mageswari's handphone.

Fong, he said, pointed out that it was unsafe for the court to rely on the MCMC report as it lacks material information regarding the phone analysis.

The accused was initially acquitted by the Sessions Court without her defence being called, but on appeal at the High Court in Taiping, she was ordered to enter defence and Johari, who had then been transferred to Perlis, had to be called back to hear the defence.

Kula Segaran, who is also Ipoh Barat MP, appeared together with lawyer Omar Kutty. Commenting on the acquittal, Kula Segaran said the whole "parade" of charging school teachers for apparently ‘leaking’ or rather, obtaining and retaining 2014 UPSR exam question papers, was most unsatisfactory.

Two teachers were charged in Kuala Kangsar alone, while two others in Seremban and one in Kemaman faced the same fate, he added. 

All of them were charged with obtaining and retaining the images of UPSR 2014 question papers.

"The person who leaked it, the actual culprit is still walking free. To date, the real culprit who had originally leaked the question has not been charged, let alone arrested. How can this happen?" he asked.

He hoped Mageswari would be reinstated to her former position without any delay and there will not be an appeal by the prosecution.