SINGAPORE - An auxiliary police officer who asked women held at a police lock-up to show him their bras was jailed for six months on Friday.

Malaysian Kalai Selvan Ramaiya, 28, was working for Aetos as an auxiliary police officer when he insulted the women's modesty at the Jurong police division lock-up on Oct 1 and 2 last year. He has left Aetos and is now unemployed.

A court heard that a 41-year-old Indonesian woman was alone in the station cell on Oct 1 when Kalai Selvan bent down and spoke to her through a pigeon-hole although it was not necessary to do so for them to hear each other.

As she came to the door and bent down to speak to him, he caught a glimpse of her cleavage. He told her she would be in remand for one week, and that he needed to check her bra, knowing full well it was not true.

Initially, she refused but he insisted. She then reluctantly pulled down her collar and showed him her bra. She felt scared, upset and insulted, and did not know what to do.

The next day, he found out that one of the five women held in custody was not wearing a bra.

He spoke to one of the two Singaporean women sharing the same cell and asked the 21-year-old if she was the one not wearing a bra.

When she denied this, he did not believe her and asked her to show him her bra. She reluctantly showed him the shape of her bra strap through her T-shirt.

More than an hour later, he spoke to the other Singaporean woman, aged 20, and asked to see her bra. Afraid and insulted after doing so, she lodged a police report after she was bailed out at about 2am the next day.

Two other charges were taken into consideration against Kalai. The father of one could have been jailed for up to one year and/or fined on each charge.