SINGAPORE, March 18 — A Central Narcotics Bureau (CNB) officer was found guilty today of kicking, slapping and punching a drug suspect in a toilet at Woodlands Checkpoint to extract a confession.
Vengedesh Raj Nainar Nagarajan, 35, assaulted Sivabalan Janniappan on Jan 2 in 2017 after the latter was found with controlled drugs concealed in a raincoat bag.
Vengedesh was convicted after claiming trial to three counts of voluntarily causing hurt to Sivabalan to extort a confession. He also faced three charges of verbally abusing police officers and drinking alcohol in public after 10.30pm, but these were stood down for the trial.
In delivering the verdict today, District Judge Salina Ishak said that she found the prosecution’s case proved beyond a reasonable doubt.
She also rejected the defence's argument that Vengedesh was merely conducting an interview in a “robust and stern manner”.
The main dispute during the trial was whether any assaults had taken place at all.
Another CNB officer had detained Sivabalan, a Malaysian, at Woodlands Checkpoint after he was found with the concealed drugs.
Sivabalan cooperated and did not struggle. He gave a statement to CNB officers at about 4.15am but did not admit guilt.
Vengedesh’s team, which was on standby, arrived at the Woodlands Checkpoint office nearing 6am. When Sivabalan first went near Vengedesh, he noticed that Vengedesh smelled of alcohol.
Court documents showed that Vengedesh, who held the rank of corporal at the time of the incident, beat Sivabalan up between 5.58am and 6.14am, between 8.35am and 8.43am and between 9.28 am and 9.30am in the toilet of the CNB office at the checkpoint.
On the first occasion, Vengedesh slapped Sivabalan’s head, punched his arm, slapped his face and kicked his knee. Sivabalan cried, told him to stop and did not fight back, eventually admitting to bringing the drugs into Singapore.
One of the escorting officers, Sergeant Muhammad Heykal Rahman, was focused on gathering evidence from Sivabalan’s mobile phone.
Doctors examined Sivabalan on the same evening and CNB began internal investigations following the Malaysian’s allegations against Vengedesh.
Sivabalan has since been convicted and sentenced to 15 years’ jail and 13 strokes of the cane.
Today, District Judge Salina said that the main issue in the trial was whether Vengedesh had assaulted Sivabalan three times for the purpose of extorting a confession.
The defence had denied all wrongdoing, arguing that what happened in the toilet was a robust and stern interview.
The judge also found that the evidence of Staff Sergeant Mohammad Adli Mohamed Nawar — who had escorted Sivabalan on two occasions and witnessed one of Vengedesh’s assaults — was credible, and that she was satisfied by his explanation of any discrepancies in his evidence.
Sivabalan had also given a clear account of the incident, which was corroborated by Staff Sergeant Adli, medical evidence and closed-circuit television footage, the judge added.
In contrast, District Judge Salina found Vengedesh’s evidence to be internally and externally inconsistent, and that he was deliberately evasive during cross-examination.
Vengedesh will return to court on April 29 for mitigation and sentencing.
For each count of voluntarily causing hurt in order to extort a confession, he could be jailed for up to seven years, as well as fined or caned.
He was represented by Mr Peter Keith Fernando and Ms Kabita Pandey of Leo Fernando LLC, while the prosecution was led by Deputy Public Prosecutors Dillon Kok and Han Ming Kuang. — TODAY
