Over 5 years’ jail for repeat drug abuser who offered $1k bribe to cops for chance to smoke
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Radika Rajavarma, 42, was sentenced to five years, eight months and four weeks’ jail.
PHOTO: ST FILE
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- Radika Rajavarma, a repeat drug offender, offered two police officers a $1,000 bribe in October 2022.
- She made the offer as she wanted to smoke a cigarette.
- Radika committed some of her latest offences while she was under a remission order, during which she was supposed to keep herself out of trouble from June 18, 2022 to Sept 24, 2023.
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SINGAPORE - A repeat drug abuser landed herself in deeper trouble in 2022 when she offered police officers a bribe of $1,000 in exchange for permission to smoke one more cigarette, after she already had a few.
On Aug 28, Radika Rajavarma, 42, was sentenced to five years, eight months and four weeks’ jail.
She had pleaded guilty to multiple offences including drug consumption and offering a bribe.
The Singaporean must also spend another 256 days behind bars after she breached a remission order.
Court documents stated that Radika, who had been in and out of jail since 2018 for drug abuse, was last convicted of methamphetamine consumption in 2020. She was sentenced to 3½ years’ jail before she was released in June 2022.
She was then placed on a remission order, during which she was supposed to keep herself out of trouble from June 18, 2022, to Sept 24, 2023.
Radika was also placed on a drug supervision programme, which was supposed to last for five years from June 18, 2022, to June 17, 2027.
Despite these, she failed to turn up for mandatory urine tests without valid reasons from August 2022 and was arrested on Oct 4 that year.
Deputy Public Prosecutor Emily Koh said that Radika was allowed to smoke a few sticks of cigarettes following her arrest on Oct 4, 2022, before she was handcuffed and escorted into a police vehicle.
The DPP added: “While the vehicle was on the way to the Police Cantonment Complex... the accused requested one last stick (of cigarette).”
Radika was “desperate” as she was aware that once she reached a lock-up, she would not be able to smoke cigarettes, added the prosecutor.
The two officers then replied that she was not allowed to smoke as she was under police custody.
She then offered them a bribe of $1,000 in exchange for allowing her to smoke, but they rejected the offer.
She was released on bail later that day, only to be arrested again on July 29, 2023, for drug consumption.
Her urine samples were later found to contain traces of methamphetamine.
Radika was charged in court on July 31 that year and released on bail on the same day.
She continued to absent herself from urine tests and failed to turn up in court in October that year.
A warrant of arrest was then issued against her, and she was rearrested in December 2024.
