Singapore: Indian-origin woman jailed in maid abuse case admits to asking son-in-law to remove evidence

Singapore, June 15 : An Indian-origin woman, who is serving a 14-year jail sentence in Singapore after being convicted of abusing her maid, a Myanmar national, has admitted to asking her son-in-law, who is a police officer, to remove the CCTV recorder that held evidence of the crimes, Channel News Asia (CNA) reported.

Prema S Naraynasamy (64), on Thursday, pleaded guilty to one count of instigating her son-in-law, Kevin Chelvam (44), causing evidence of the offences to disappear.

The victim, Piang Ngaih Don, died due to a brain injury with severe blunt trauma to her neck on July 26, 2016, after 14 months of repeated abuse.

According to the CNA, the victim was punched, stamped on and starved until she weighed only 24kg. The victim was also tied to a window grill at night days before her death and assaulted whenever she tried to rummage for food in the dustbin, it stated.

The court heard that Prema had been assaulting the victim on the night of July 25, 2016, with her daughter and co-accused, 43-year-old Gaiyathiri Murugayan, according to CNA.

After refusing dinner to her maid, Gaiyathiri Murugayan allegedly tied the victim's wrist to a window grill and kicked her in the stomach before leaving her on the floor in wet clothes.

The victim did not wake up after the assault, the report stated, adding that when the accused realised this, they tried several ways to wake her up but to no avail.

They called for a doctor while refusing to requisition an ambulance or inform the police, the report stated.

When the doctor arrived and realised the victim was dead, he insisted on calling the police and arranging an ambulance, the report added.

Currently, Gaiyathiri Murugayan is in jail, serving a 30-year sentence. She was convicted and sentenced in 2021. She appealed against her sentence, but her plea was dismissed a year later, reported CNA.

However, Chelvam's case is pending. He is set to stand trial for all his charges, which include abuse of his maid, the court heard.

He has been suspended from the police force since August 2016, days after the maid died, the report added.

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