Jail for CNB officer who assaulted drug suspect to get confession

A Central Narcotics Bureau (CNB) officer who was under the influence of alcohol when he assaulted a man - then suspected to be a drug offender - to extort a confession was sentenced to five years' jail yesterday.

Vengedesh Raj Nainar Nagarajan, who has been suspended since October 2019, was also ordered to give the Malaysian victim, Sivabalan Kanniappan, then 34, compensation of $4,500 for his pain and suffering.

Last month, District Judge Salina Ishak found Vengedesh, now 35, guilty of three counts of voluntarily causing hurt to extort a confession from Sivabalan.

In his submissions, Deputy Public Prosecutor Dillon Kok said: "The accused... had showed up for work that day with alcoholic breath.

"He continued to drink from a beer can while in the office itself that morning, even taking steps to hide it with a brown paper bag to make it less obvious to the CCTV (closed-circuit television) cameras. He assaulted (Sivabalan) in the toilet (while) under the influence of... alcohol."

Yesterday, Vengedesh also admitted to an unrelated harassment charge - using abusive words on a policeman - and was fined $4,000.

He had joined some friends to drink beer at the void deck of a Canberra Street block of flats near Sembawang Road on March 14, 2020, and became drunk.

At around 11.20pm, an eyewitness alerted the police about the group and a policeman arrived at the scene with his partner.

The two police officers then told Vengedesh's group that they were not allowed to consume alcohol in public at that hour. Vengedesh later hurled vulgarities at the policeman and was arrested.

Separately, he had committed the offences against Sivabalan after the latter was found to have drugs on him at Woodlands Checkpoint in 2017.

The Malaysian has since been convicted of drug offences and given 15 years' jail with 13 strokes of the cane.

In earlier proceedings, deputy public prosecutors Han Ming Kuang and Timothy Ong said in submissions that before Sivabalan was assaulted, he was stopped for an inspection when he entered Singapore through the checkpoint at around 3.40am on Jan 2, 2017.

A blue bundle, suspected to contain controlled drugs, was found in a raincoat bag at the rear box of his motorcycle.

Sivabalan later provided a urine sample and Vengedesh, then a corporal with the bureau, arrived at the Woodlands Checkpoint CNB office at around 6am after he was activated to attend to the case.

He later assaulted Sivabalan to get a confession from him.

Vengedesh's offences came to light after doctors examined Sivabalan, who had complained of pain in parts of his body, including his left lower ribs. He then revealed that he had been assaulted.