Jail for CNB officer who assaulted man to get confession and hurled vulgarities at cop

SINGAPORE - 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 on Friday (April 29).

Vengedesh Raj Nainar Nagarajan, who has been suspended since October 2019, was also ordered to give the Malaysian victim, Sivabalan Kanniappan, then 34, a 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 continually showed a disregard for the integrity of the law enforcement vocation he had been tasked with. He 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."

On Friday, 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 the 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 and advised them to leave.

Vengedesh later hurled vulgarities at the policeman and was arrested.

Separately, he had committed the offences against Sivabalan after the latter was found with 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 an earlier proceeding, DPPs Han Ming Kuang and Timothy Ong said in their 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.

He was handed over to the CNB Woodlands team and an officer recorded a statement from him.

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.

The two men later met and the court heard that Sivabalan noticed that Vengedesh reeked of alcohol. The pair went to a toilet and Vengedesh started talking to Sivabalan.

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 to body parts including his left lower ribs. He then revealed that he had been assaulted.

On Friday, DPP Kok urged the court to sentence him to between five and six years' jail and a fine of up to $4,000.

He also asked the court to order Vengedesh to give Sivabalan $4,500 as compensation.

Stressing that Sivabalan had no means to escape his tormentor when he was assaulted, the prosecutor said: "Far from upholding the integrity of his profession, (Vengedesh) deliberately chose to use violence, and the fear of violence, as a means of extorting a confession from the helpless, handcuffed victim before him.

"This blatant violation of the sanctity and primacy of the rule of law in criminal proceedings must be met with an equally clear deterrent signal."

Vengedesh was represented by lawyers Peter Keith Fernando and Kavita Pandey.

Mr Fernando pleaded for the court to sentence his client to not more than five years' jail for the offences involving Sivabalan.

He asked for Vengedesh to be given a week's jail for the harassment charge as he had no means to pay a fine.

The lawyer also told the court that his client had received numerous commendations and awards as a CNB officer.

On Friday, the court heard that Vengedesh will be spending three weeks behind bars if he was unable to pay the $4,500 compensation.

And if he is unable to pay the $4,000 fine, he will spend another 10 days behind bars. Vengedesh will start serving his sentence next month.

For each count of voluntarily causing hurt to extort a confession, an offender can be jailed for up to seven years and fined or caned.