Indian-origin narcotics officer gets 5 years in jail for assaulting drug offender

Singapore: An Indian-origin narcotics officer in Singapore was on Friday sentenced to five years in jail for being under the influence of alcohol and assaulting a suspected drug offender to extort a confession, the media reported.

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 SGD4,500 (USD3,262) for his pain and suffering, The Straits Times reported.

District Judge Salina Ishak in March this year found Nagarajan, now 35, guilty of three counts of voluntarily causing hurt to extort a confession from Indian-origin Sivabalan.

Deputy Public Prosecutor Dillon Kok in his submissions said Nagarajan, the accused Central Narcotics Bureau (CNB) officer, "continually showed a disregard for the integrity of the law enforcement vocation he had been tasked with".

Kok said the officer had shown up for work that day with an alcoholic breath.

Nagarajan on Friday also admitted to an unrelated harassment charge -- using abusive words on a policeman -- and was fined SGD4,000.

Nagarajan, however, had separately committed the offences against Sivabalan after the latter was found with drugs on him at Woodlands Checkpoint in 2017.

Sivabalan has since been convicted of drug offences and given 15 years in jail with 13 strokes of the cane.

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

The court on Friday ordered that Nagarajan would be spending three weeks behind bars if unable to pay the SGD4,500 compensation.

It added that the Indian-origin officer would spend another 10 days behind bars if unable to pay the SGD4,000 (USD2,899) fine. Nagarajan 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.