Indian National Jailed 7 Months For Molesting Woman In Singapore

An Indian national was sentenced to seven months' jail on Wednesday after pleading guilty to one count of molestation, with one count of housebreaking taken into consideration for his sentencing.

Erakkodan Abinraj, 26, climbed into his neighbour's condominium unit and molested a 36-year-old woman who cannot be named due to a gag order.

She was asleep in the master bedroom with her husband, and her daughter was in another room, when Abinraj, who entered the house through the balcony around 4.50 am on September 22 last year, entered her room and proceeded to touch the victim's underwear as he saw her asleep.

The victim woke up as she felt someone touching her, a Channel News Asia report said, adding that she turned to the accused holding up his handphone with the torchlight on after she got puzzled seeing her husband sleeping next to her.

The victim screamed, waking her husband who confronted Abinraj and asked him to leave the room.

The accused then urinated in fear and pleaded with him not to call the police, the court heard.

The victim called the police and Abinraj stayed in the unit until the police arrived, before admitting to trespassing.

However, he denied touching the victim and lied that his handphone had dropped on the victim, claiming that was when she had woken up.

The prosecution sought a jail term of six to eight months as a punishment.

The prosecution said it was aggravating that Abinraj had broken into the victim's home, which is a “private place” where the victim should expect to feel safe. She added that the victim was also vulnerable because she was asleep.

She said Abinraj had caused further inconvenience by urinating in her unit.

Abinraj's lawyer Ambalavanar Ravidass asked for seven months' jail, saying his client comes from a humble family in India.

He added that Abinraj's grandmother had died by suicide, suggesting that his client had been mentally disturbed during the time of the offences.

In response, the prosecution said an Institute of Mental Health report had not diagnosed Abinraj with any mental condition.

Ravidass accepted that his client had no mental condition, but had been undergoing “normal depression” that anyone would go through given the circumstances.

For molestation, Abinraj could have been jailed for up to three years, fined and caned. 

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)