An Indian-origin senior citizen has been sentenced to 10 months in jail for outraging the modesty of a woman and assaulting another person with a dangerous weapon. Sixity-one-year-old Singaram Palianeapan was jailed after he pleaded guilty to using criminal force to molest a domestic worker and voluntarily causing hurt to another man using metal chain.
Four other similar charges were also taken into consideration during sentencing by the court.
On September 28, 2022, Singaram followed a domestic worker into a lift where he molested her, keeping her trapped for nearly 90 seconds, according to a news report.
Court documents showed that the woman was buying food when Singaram offered her money to buy herself a drink. She initially refused the offer but later accepted the money when he insisted.
After getting her food, she proceeded to head back to her employer’s residence as Singaram followed her. The two reached the lift of the housing block and Singaram pressed the button for level 17 but when the woman tried to press the button for level five, he stopped her.
Deputy Public Prosecutor Jordy Kay said that once the lift started to move, Singaram began to molest the worker. The lift arrived at level 17 and Singaram stood by the lift doors asking the victim to follow him.
When she refused, he went back into the lift and selected the seventh floor. As the lift moved, he continued to molest the domestic help.
Singaram was in the lift with the victim for about a minute and 28 seconds, and all of his actions were captured on the lift’s CCTV camera, Kay said.
Singaram was arrested on September 28 and released on bail the next day.
Around a month on October 28, while he was out on bail, Singaram punched a man at a bicycle shop three times with a metal chain wrapped around his fist.
Victim Yeoh Su Kai was at his friend Hu Jianpeng’s bicycle shop when Singaram confronted the shop owner about the problems he was facing with the personal mobility device that he bought.
A dispute broke out between the two following which Singaram took out a metal chain from his personal mobility device, wrapped it around his right fist and punched Yeoh thrice.
Seeking a jail term of between nine and 11 months for Singaram, Kay argued that even though the degree of sexual exploitation was low, there was still an attempt to touch the domestic worker’s chest area.
DPP Kay also addressed the assault on Mr Yeoh, highlighting that the metal chain used was serious given that the injuries were to the victim’s head.
(With PTI Inputs)
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