Indian national gets 14 years in jail for sexually assaulting minor girl in Singapore

Singapore: An Indian national was sentenced to over 14 years in jail in Singapore on Thursday for sexually assaulting an 11-year-old girl twice.

Sentenced by the Singapore High Court, Ramalingam Selvasekaran, 58, will not be caned, as he is over 50. However, his sentence of 14 years, three months and two weeks includes additional jail time in lieu of 15 strokes of the cane, reported The Straits Times.

He was found guilty on July 7 of all three charges – one count of rape and two counts of outrage of modesty – after a trial in which he represented himself.

During sentencing arguments on July 30, Ramalingam maintained his innocence and said he would be appealing against his conviction.

After he was sentenced and granted bail of SGD80,000 pending appeal, he bargained with the judge regarding his bail conditions.

Justice Aidan Xu rejected Ramalingam’s requests to remove his electronic tag (usually attached to the leg to track a convicted person movement) and forgo regular check-ins at the Police Cantonment Complex.

Ramalingam also objected to Deputy Public Prosecutor Susanna Yim’s proposal to return to the girl SGD8 in cash while the court was determining the fate of various trial exhibits.

“The SGD8 was taken from my shop,” he said. The judge told the prosecution to look into the matter.

The offences took place between about 4.50 pm and about 5.05 pm on October 28, 2021, at his provision store in Jurong West on the west coast of Singapore. The girl visited his store and returned later that day to buy ice cream.

Ramalingam, who was 55 years old then, was accused by the prosecution of leading the girl to the inner confines of his shop to touch her and make her perform oral sex on him.

Following the assaults, the girl sought help from a passerby, who called the police.

At the end of the trial, which began on January 16, Ramalingam argued that the girl's testimony should not be believed.

He said it was unbelievable that she would have gone to a stranger for help when she could have gone to someone she knew.

He argued that it was suspicious that there was no police camera footage of her returning to her home after the incident.

He added that he could not have raped the victim as he was suffering from erectile dysfunction, and noted that his DNA was not found on her body.

In convicting Ramalingam on July 7, Justice Xu said the prosecution's case had been established beyond a reasonable doubt.

The judge found no significant weaknesses in the girl’s recounting of events.

"The fact that she had not run off after the first act of molest, or that she did not resist the assaults, or inform her grandfather, were all to my mind sufficiently explained, particularly given that she was still young and immature," the Singapore daily quoted the judge as saying.

Justice Xu pointed out that in Ramalingam’s earlier statements to the police, he stated he had hugged and kissed the victim and that she had performed oral sex on him.

Ramalingam’s later statements denying the commission of the offences were merely an attempt to resile from what he had admitted, the judge said.

Justice Xu said the absence of camera footage did not undermine her evidence.

While there was no dispute that Ramalingam suffered from erectile dysfunction, the judge said the prosecution’s expert witness gave a cogent explanation that oral rape remained possible.

The absence of Ramalingam’s DNA on the victim was at most neutral and did not undermine the girl’s evidence that she had been sexually assaulted, said the judge.