Cop charged in court over alleged acts of forgery leading to 8 reopened coroner's inquiries

Kenny Cheong Chyuan Lih is accused of multiple counts of forgery. PHOTO: SHIN MIN DAILY NEWS

SINGAPORE - A policeman whose alleged acts of forgery led to eight reopened coroner's inquiries was hauled to a district court on Tuesday (June 21) to face multiple charges.

Kenny Cheong Chyuan Lih, 38, is now accused of 39 counts of forgery.

The station inspector, who has been suspended since Dec 27, 2018, allegedly forged statements including those from people linked to the eight coroner’s inquiries.

They included eyewitnesses and family members of the dead.

He allegedly committed these offences at the Traffic Police headquarters in Ubi Avenue 3 between 2015 and 2017.

Cheong is also accused of one count of forging a document purportedly made by an assistant public prosecutor from the Attorney-General’s Chambers (AGC) in her official capacity.

He allegedly committed this offence between April and September 2017.

According to the court documents, this case involved official correspondence purportedly between the AGC and the Singapore Police Force (SPF), directing the police to charge a man with offences under the Penal Code and the Road Traffic Act.

Details about these offences were not disclosed in court documents.

In a joint statement on Tuesday, SPF and the AGC said Cheong’s alleged acts of forgery involved 40 documents across 15 investigation papers.

Besides coroner’s inquiries, they were also said to involve concluded criminal cases and criminal cases which did not give rise to prosecution.

All of the eight affected coroner’s inquiries involved fatal crashes. 

They had been handled by then State Coroner Marvin Bay, and he had to look into the cases again.

The original inquiries had taken place between 2016 and 2018.

Cheong's alleged offences came to light following investigations by the police's Internal Affairs Office.

Seven cases were completed in the rehearings last year.

Six were heard on Oct 18 and Coroner Bay was satisfied that there had been no miscarriage of justice for them.

The seventh case was heard on Oct 19 and the court heard that Cheong's alleged acts of forgery had no impact on its findings.

The eighth reopened inquiry was concluded on April 1 this year.

For this case, Cheong is said to have forged the statements from two passengers who were in a car - a 12-year-old boy and his sister.

Among other things, Coroner Bay said in his findings that the contents of the boy's forged statements had no impact on the case.

This was because the child had "consistently asserted that he had not witnessed the collision".

In their joint statement, SPF and the AGC said that after the coroner’s inquiries were heard again, Coroner Bay was satisfied that there had been no miscarriage of justice.

In an unrelated case, lawyer Willjude Vimalraj Raymond Suras, 31, was charged on Tuesday with 38 counts of forgery and one count of intentionally giving false evidence in a judicial proceeding.

Lawyer Willjude Vimalraj Raymond Suras, was also charged on Tuesday with multiple counts of forgery. PHOTO: SHIN MIN DAILY NEWS

A search on the Ministry of Law’s website reveals that he is a legal counsel at a firm called Advance Law.

Cheong and Willjude were each offered bail of $15,000 on Tuesday.

Their cases have been adjourned to Aug 2. 

For each count of forgery, an offender can be jailed for up to four years and fined.

If convicted of forging a document purportedly made by the prosecutor from the AGC, Cheong can be jailed for up to 10 years and fined.

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