Former law firm legal executive charged with offences under Official Secrets Act, corruption

SINGAPORE - A former law firm legal executive received contact particulars of informants linked to road accidents from a Traffic Police clerk, a court heard on Friday (April 27).

Gulzar Raja Singh Sandhu, 71, is alleged to have unlawfully obtained contact details 24 times from Khatijah A. Manap, 63, who used to work at the Traffic Police investigation branch.

Court documents did not say what Raja, who used to work for Clifford Law, did with the information.

Raja faces 24 counts of offences under the Official Secrets Act, eight corruption charges involving $2,500 and one count of abetting another man to intentionally pervert the course of justice.

He allegedly received the information from Khatijah between 2010 and 2013.

Raja is also accused of giving her between $200 and $500 in bribes as a reward for giving him the information.

Between April and June 2013, Raja allegedly instigated a man identified as Junaidi Aziz to intentionally pervert the course of justice.

Junaidi was purportedly told to withhold information from law enforcement agencies if they questioned him on Raja's alleged offer for a "referral fee".

Court documents did not disclose any information about this fee.

According to earlier reports in The Straits Times, Khatijah was in charge of recording the movement of Traffic Police investigation papers.

She was jailed for 18 weeks on July 27, 2016, after admitting to three graft charges and five of wrongful communication of information to Raja.

Twenty-three other charges were considered during sentencing.

Raja was offered bail of $5,000 and will be back in court on May 28.

If convicted of committing an offence under the Official Secrets Act, he can be jailed for up to two years and fined up to $2,000 for each charge.

For each corruption charge, he can be jailed for up to five years and fined up to $100,000 if convicted.

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