Ex-yoga instructor convicted of outraging modesty of 3 women, acquitted of molesting 4th

SINGAPORE - A former yoga instructor was convicted on May 16 after a 13-day trial for outraging the modesty of three women during classes. But he was acquitted of molesting a fourth woman.

Indian national Rajpal Singh, 34, was then working at Trust Yoga in Telok Ayer Street, where all four women were members. He no longer conducts lessons there.

District Judge Sharmila Sripathy-Shanaz convicted him of five molestation charges involving the three women, referred to as Ms C, Ms V and Ms R. She found that the trio were “unusually convincing” witnesses.

Singh was acquitted of three other molestation charges involving a fourth woman, Ms Y. The judge said Ms Y presented as “an earnest witness” in court, but added: “The question of whether a complainant is unusually convincing must be premised upon the reliability of her evidence.”

The judge found Ms Y’s continued support of Singh “incongruent” with her molestation allegations. Among other things, the defence during the trial admitted an exhibit containing text messages she had sent on Aug 3, 2020, to Ms Wong Shiou An, a co-owner of Trust Yoga then. Ms Y had stated in the messages that Singh was a good instructor.

Ms C, who was 24 at the time, attended Singh’s class from 4.30pm to 5.30pm on July 11, 2020. A closed-circuit television camera recorded the session and its footage was admitted as an exhibit during the trial.

She was in a yoga position called a “forward fold” when he molested her. She was in another pose when he outraged her modesty again.

In their submissions, Deputy Public Prosecutors Selene Yap and Gladys Lim said: “(She) felt violated and did not expect to be molested in class by a teacher. She expected yoga classes to be a safe space and was confused about how to react.” Ms C later told a friend and her mother what had happened.

On July 12, 2020, Ms C met some people including Ms Wong, and told Ms Wong she was molested twice the day before. Ms C lodged a police report the next day.

Ms V, who was then around 24 years old, attended classes from Sept 30, 2019 to July 29, 2020 and Singh molested her twice within that time.

During the trial, she stated that she saw Singh as a properly trained instructor who should have known how to appropriately adjust students’ poses.

The DPPs said this made it difficult for her to accept or believe that he would have molested her.

The court heard that initially she had a strong desire to ignore the incident, but she spoke to Ms C and finally alerted the police on Aug 29, 2020.

Ms R was 28 years old when Singh molested her during class in November 2019. She felt disoriented, confused, shocked and angry.

On Aug 5, 2020, she found out by chance on social media that he had also molested Ms C. Ms R conversed with her via Instagram before alerting the police that day,

Singh is represented by lawyers Anil Murkoth Changaroth and Lim Muhammad Syafiq from RHTLaw Asia. He had denied molesting the women. Among other things, he said that if he had touched Ms V and Ms R, he had done so to adjust their poses.

Singh was accused of molesting Ms Y, who was then 37 years old, on three occasions in 2020.

The first purported incident took place in January that year during her private class with him. The next two purported acts of molestation happened between February and April 2020.

His mitigation and sentencing are expected to take place on July 15.