On 22 December 2001, inside his rented flat in Singapore's Marsiling, 23-year-old Lourdusamy Lenin Selvanayagan[lower-alpha 1], a ship's electrician from India, was stabbed to death by one of his room-mates Arun Prakash Vaithilingam[lower-alpha 2], who was his 23-year-old colleague from the same workplace. Arun, who originated from Tamil Nadu, evaded the authorities for about four months before his arrest in March 2002, and he was charged with murder. Arun put up a defence that he stabbed Lenin during a sudden fight against the murder charge, but the High Court ruled that Arun had taken undue advantage over the unarmed victim by using a knife during the dispute, and therefore found Arun guilty of murdering Lenin, and Arun was sentenced to hang under Section 302 of the Penal Code. Despite the appeals from Arun and the international community against the death penalty, Arun was hanged on 3 October 2003.[1]
Shortly after midnight on 23 December 2001, a male Indian national was rushed to Alexandra Hospital for treatment, after he was stabbed during an argument with one of his ten room-mates at a rented flat in Marsiling. Despite the resuscitation efforts of Dr Soh Poh Chung and his colleagues, the man was pronounced dead 35 minutes later at 1.02am.[2][3]
The victim was identified as 23-year-old Lourdusamy Lenin Selvanayagan, a ship electrician who was a native of Thiruvarur from Tamil Nadu in Southern India. At the time of his death, Lenin shared the Marsiling rental flat with ten other Indian workers - Arun Prakash Vaithilingam, Bala Sundram Suresh Kumar, Selvaraj John David, Kaliamoorthy Nagaraj, Ganesan Siva Subramani, Sivapunniam Karthikeyan, Kandasamy Pulgamani, Vanamamalai Pillai Chithambarakttalam, Clement Raj Leo Antuvan, and Rajagopalan Palvannan - and he was said to have been stabbed at about 11.30pm on 22 December 2001, and a few of his room-mates helped send him to the hospital.[3] Some of his room-mates spoke to the police and media that Lenin had a good relationship with his alleged killer, before they fell out over a dispute and it led to the stabbing,[4] and the perpetrator happened to be one of the room-mates helping to bring Lenin to hospital.[5]
Forensic pathologist Dr Paul Chui found that Lenin was stabbed once on the chest, and although it did not penetrate the heart, the single wound itself was sufficient in the ordinary course of nature to cause death, as the knife had slashed through both the main pulmonary artery and left upper pulmonary vein,[3] which caused massive bleeding and Lenin died as a result of the severe loss of blood.[6]
The police investigated the case, which was classified as murder, and as the facts emerged during investigations, it was found that the room-mate responsible for the stabbing of Lenin was Arun Prakash Vaithilingam, who was Lenin's 23-year-old colleague and an Indian national from Thiruvarur in Tamil Nadu, who also held a diploma in electrical and computer engineering.[1] However, Arun disappeared shortly after sending Lenin to the hospital,[7][8] and the police took efforts to track him down for further investigations. Arun remained in Singapore and hid from the police for about four months, until 18 March 2002, when Arun decided to use a fake passport to flee to Malaysia, he was arrested at the Woodlands Checkpoint, and Arun was subsequently charged with murder.[3]
In the same year of his arrest, Arun Prakash Vaithilingam stood trial at the High Court for one count of murdering Lourdusamy Lenin Selvanayagan. Arun was represented by N K Rajarh and Parvathi Annanth, while the prosecution consisted of Ng Cheng Thiam and Francis Ng. The trial was presided over by Judicial CommissionerChoo Han Teck.[3]
The trial court was told that on the morning of 22 December 2001 (the date of the murder), while Lenin and his room-mates (except for Selvaraj John David and Arun himself) were boarding a lorry to their workplace, Lenin complained that Arun was often late due to him using the toilet for one hour (John David was not working that day), and while one of the room-mates Rajagopalan Palvannan advised Lenin to be more discreet in his comments, Lenin did not take the advice well and a brief argument broke out between Palvannan and Lenin, before the rest of the workers on the lorry defused the quarrel. Afterwards, the day passed on without issue. Arun, who returned home at 11pm after a drinks session and completing his employer's task, got wind of the argument between Lenin and Palvannan, and Arun woke Palvannan up, wanting him to accompany him to confront Lenin about what he said earlier that day, but Palvannan told Arun to leave the matter be and wait until the next morning before approaching Lenin. However, the advice fell on deaf ears as Arun, who was adamant about the unsettled issue, went ahead with waking up the sleeping Lenin and confronted him. An argument broke out between Lenin and Arun, the latter who had armed himself with a knife before the confrontation, which jolted the rest of the duo's flat-mates out of their sleep. In the course of the argument, Arun stabbed Lenin in the chest. According to the flat-mates of Arun, some of whom testified for the prosecution, they tried to restrain Arun from attacking Lenin before the stabbing, and Arun was seen switching the knife from his restrained right hand to the free left hand, and in a stabbing motion, Arun plunged the knife directly into Lenin's chest and it resulted in Lenin's death.[3]
Arun, who elected to enter his defence, stated that he did not plan or intend to kill Lenin. Arun said that he never intended to stab Lenin, and he never realized that the knife had gone into Lenin's chest while he was charging at Lenin after he freed himself from the restraints by his friends. Rajarh submitted that Arun had no intention to use the knife other than to frighten Lenin, as per what Arun told the authorities after his arrest and during trial, and while he was charging at Lenin, Arun meant to raise his right hand to punch at Lenin instead of stabbing Lenin with the knife in his left hand. It was also emphasized by the defence that there was a fight between him and Lenin over the matter in the morning itself, which led to Lenin to die during the dispute. Overall, the defences raised by Arun against the murder charge were one of sudden fight, and one of unintentional stabbing.[3]
On 3 December 2002, after a trial lasting five days, Judicial Commissioner Choo Han Teck delivered his verdict. In his verdict, Judicial Commissioner Choo found that Arun indeed stabbed Lenin on purpose, and he stated that while it may be true that Arun's original intention of arming himself with a knife was just to threaten or intimidate Lenin, it was clear that when he stabbed Lenin, he intended to use the knife to cause grievous harm and it in turn led to Lenin's death, and Arun's decision to switch the knife from his restrained right hand to his free left hand before the stabbing was a telling sign of his intent to stab Lenin. Judicial Commissioner Cho also cited that Arun’s mental state at the material time was not affected by alcohol intoxication even though he had gone drinking prior to the killing.[3]
Judicial Commissioner Choo also touched on the defence of sudden fight, and he stated that it was untenable due to Arun being the instigator of the fight, and he was armed beforehand. The judge also determined that the accused had an unfair advantage over the deceased, given that Arun's height was 1.9m and he was taller than Lenin, whose height was 1.6m, and aside from his bigger physical stature, Arun was also armed with a knife while Lenin was unarmed, and hence he cannot avail himself the defence of sudden fight, and it was not successful in rebutting his murder charge. Judicial Commissioner Choo also referred to the definition of murder under Section 300(c) of the Penal Code, which stated that a person was guilty of murder if he/she intentionally inflicted a bodily injury(s) that was sufficient in the ordinary course of nature to cause death, and based on the findings he made above and per the section's definition, Judicial Commissioner Choo concluded that there were sufficient grounds to return with a verdict of murder in Arun's case.[9]
Therefore, 24-year-old Arun Prakash Vaithilingam was found guilty of murder, and sentenced to death by hanging. Under Singaporean law, the death penalty was prescribed as the mandatory punishment for murder upon an offender's conviction.[10]
Arun's appeal
On 17 February 2003, Arun filed an appeal against the death sentence and murder conviction, once again raising his defences of unintentional stabbing and of sudden fight. After hearing his case, the Court of Appeal's three-judge panel - consisting of Chao Hick Tin, Judith Prakash and a third unnamed judge - dismissed Arun's appeal and upheld both his conviction and sentence.[11]
In a judgement dated 12 March 2003, Justice Chao stated that the trial judge Choo Han Teck was correct to convict Arun of murder, since Arun, whose right hand was holding a knife while being restrained by his friends, had switched the knife to his free left hand and subsequently plunged the knife into Lenin's chest, and it showed he had intended to stab Lenin, even if he only wanted to use it to intimidate Lenin in the first place, and it was entirely legal for the judge to convict Arun of a Section 300(c) murder charge, where it concerned an act of murder by intentionally inflicting an injury(s) sufficient in the ordinary course of nature to cause death, despite the absence of any intention to cause death. Arun's act of wielding a knife during his fight with Lenin, who did not have any weapons at the material time, was considered to be an undue advantage taken by Arun and hence, his defences unintentional stabbing and sudden fight were untenable, and the appeal was accordingly dismissed.[12]
Controversy and execution
After the Court of Appeal confirmed the death penalty in Arun's case, Arun's family members stepped up to appeal to the President of Singapore to grant Arun clemency, which would commute Arun's death sentence to life imprisonment if successful; Arun's father (an ex-serviceman) and mother (an employee of Tamil Nadu Electricity Board) pleaded to the President to show mercy for Arun, who was their only son, and stated his act of killing Lenin was not premeditated. Similarly, the Indian government and Indian civil rights groups filed appeals to the Singapore government for clemency in Arun's case, and one of the civil rights groups, People's Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL), cited that Arun was not a habitual offender and that a mitigating factor in his case was that Arun helped bring Lenin to the hospital immediately after the stabbing, and hence his sentence of death should be commuted to life imprisonment.[13][1]
After receiving word of Arun's case, international human rights group Amnesty International officially filed a plea to the Singapore government to spare Arun from the gallows, and they cited that Arun should not be executed as he had killed Lenin during a drunken argument and he never had any intention to commit murder, and also pointed out Arun's testimony that he never realized he had stabbed Lenin, and his death sentence was imposed despite the eyewitness accounts of the fight. Amnesty International also added that the death penalty was discriminatory and it was more often imposed for people of disadvantaged backgrounds or of foreign nationality, and Singapore should abolish the death penalty.[14] The last death row inmate to be granted clemency was Mathavakannan Kalimuthu, a 19-year-old youth who was one of three people found guilty of murdering a man during a gang fight, and his original death sentence was converted to life in prison by President Ong Teng Cheong, who accepted his clemency plea in April 1998.[15] Mathavakannan was released on parole since January 2012 after serving 16 years out of his life sentence, while his two co-accused were hanged during the same year he escaped the gallows.[16]
On 25 September 2003, Amnesty International received word that President S. R. Nathan rejected Arun's clemency petition, and his death warrant was also released soon after, scheduling Arun to hang on 3 October 2003, and even so, the international community continued to appeal to the Singapore government to review Arun's case and commute his sentence to life imprisonment, but the execution date was not deferred.[17]
During the Friday dawn of 3 October 2003, Arun Prakash Vaithilingam was hanged in Changi Prison, a year and ten months after the murder. At the same timing, two more drug traffickers were put to death at the same prison.[18][19] Arun was reportedly the 13th person executed in Singapore in 2003,[20] and during the year of 2003 itself, a total of 19 people were hanged in Singapore, five for murder (including Arun himself) and 14 others (including Vignes Mourthi) for drug trafficking.[21]
Aftermath
In the aftermath of Arun's hanging, Amnesty International condemned the Singapore government for executing Arun, whom they stated should not be hanged for murder in spite of his lack of intent to cause Lenin's death, and described the death penalty as a cruel and inhumane punishment which often fell disproportionately and arbitrarily on the most marginalized or vulnerable members of society. The case of Arun's execution, as well as the controversial executions of Rozman Jusoh,[22]Poon Yuen-chung,[23]Vignes Mourthi,[24]Thiruselvam s/o Nagaratnam[25] and Zulfikar bin Mustaffah,[26] were cited by Amnesty International to support the notion that the death penalty was discriminatory towards people of disadvantaged backgrounds.[27] In response, the Singapore government stated that they meted out capital punishment only for the most serious crimes and it was an effective deterrent against crimes like murder and drug trafficking, and was crucial in shaping Singapore into one of the safest countries in the world to live, study and work, and refuted the facts laid out by Amnesty International as an act to "misrepresent the facts to advance its political campaign against the death penalty".[28][29]
Arun's case was also used as a case study in relation to Section 300(c) of the Penal Code, under which Arun was convicted for the murder of Lourdusamy Lenin Selvanayagan, and his case was mentioned in addition to similar cases, where a person convicted of murder was said to have committed it by intentionally inflicting a fatal wound(s) on their victim(s), even in situations where the offender intended to cause a different type of injury but ended up causing the fatal wound that was not intended by the offender, and the courts affirmed that the fatal injury inflicted through their deliberate actions made these offenders (including Arun) guilty of murder under the law.[30]
The case of Lenin's murder was considered as one of Singapore's high-profile cases of violence between foreign workers during the 2000s.[31]
In 2010, Alan Shadrake, a British journalist, wrote about the execution of Arun in his book Once A Jolly Hangman: Singapore Justice in the Dock, which touched on the issues of capital punishment in Singapore.[32][33] However, as the book contained severe inaccuracies and misleading allegations about the Singaporean judiciary. Shadrake was arrested in July 2010 and charged with contempt of court by the Singapore authorities upon his arrival in Singapore to promote the book. Shadrake was sentenced to six weeks' imprisonment and a S$20,000 fine by Justice Quentin Loh of the High Court, although Shadrake had two more weeks added to his sentence ater he failed to pay the fine.[34][35] Shadrake, who refused to show remorse for his crimes, filed an appeal but the Court of Appeal rejected it,[36][37] and he was deported after his release on parole in July 2011.[38]
Capital punishment in Singapore is a legal penalty. Executions in Singapore are carried out by long drop hanging, and usually take place at dawn. Thirty-three offences—including murder, drug trafficking, terrorism, use of firearms and kidnapping—warrant the death penalty under Singapore law.
Choo Han Teck is a Singaporean judge of the Supreme Court. He was formerly a lawyer before his appointment to the court as a judge. It was revealed in 2021 that Choo was one of the defence lawyers representing Adrian Lim, the infamous Toa Payoh child killer who was executed in 1988 for charges of murdering a girl and boy as ritual sacrifices. In 1994, Choo also defended Phua Soy Boon, a jobless Singaporean who was hanged in 1995 for killing a moneylender.
Ravi Madasamy, better known as M Ravi, is a Singaporean human rights lawyer and activist. Known for his work as a cause lawyer, he has served as counsel in multiple high-profile court cases in Singapore, many of which have become leading cases in Singaporean constitutional law and Singapore's approach toward capital punishment and LGBT rights.
Mathavakannan Kalimuthu is a Singaporean who, together with his two friends, murdered a gangster named Saravanan Michael Ramalingam on 26 May 1996. Mathavakannan, who was arrested on 4 July 1996, was tried and convicted of murder by the High Court of Singapore. As murder was a hanging offence in Singapore and since he was 16 days past his 18th birthday when he committed murder, Mathavakannan was sentenced to suffer the mandatory sentence of death on 27 November of the same year he killed Saravanan. Mathavakannan's two accomplices were also found guilty and sentenced to death in the same trial.
Life imprisonment is a legal penalty in Singapore. This sentence is applicable for more than forty offences under Singapore law, such as culpable homicide not amounting to murder, attempted murder, kidnapping by ransom, criminal breach of trust by a public servant, voluntarily causing grievous hurt with dangerous weapons, and trafficking of firearms, in addition to caning or a fine for certain offences that warrant life imprisonment.
On 7 June 2016, 59-year-old Seow Kim Choo at Telok Kurau was murdered by her 23-year-old Indonesian maid Daryati, who stabbed Seow 94 times with a knife, resulting in Seow's death due to multiple wounds to her head and neck. Daryati also attacked and stabbed Seow's husband Ong Thiam Soon twice before she was restrained by Ong, and subsequently, Daryati was arrested and indicted for charges of murder and attempted murder. The motive behind Daryati's killing of her employer was due to her wanting to get back her passport to return to Indonesia as she was feeling homesick and missed her lesbian lover, who was working as a maid in Hong Kong.
Vignes s/o Mourthi was a Malaysian convicted drug trafficker who was found guilty of trafficking 27.65 grams of diamorphine on 20 September 2001. After the end of his trial in August 2002, Vignes and his accomplice Moorthy a/l Angappan were both sentenced to death since the death penalty was mandatory for the amount trafficked by the duo. Despite the immense evidence against him, Vignes maintained his innocence and appealed many times to overturn his conviction and sentence. Ultimately, Vignes was put to death alongside Moorthy as scheduled on 26 September 2003. His execution remained a controversy even in the aftermath due to his insistent claims of innocence.
On 6 May 2005, 69-year-old Tham Weng Kuen was stabbed more than 110 times by a robber in her flat in Boon Lay and she died as a result. The police managed to arrest two suspects, who were brothers and also the neighbours of the victim.
On 22 November 1990, 20-year-old National Serviceman Lee Teck Sang, who deserted from his army and hid himself at the campus of Singapore Polytechnic for 17 days, used a knife to murder a 45-year-old lecturer during a robbery. The victim, Tan Chin Liong, died as a result of being stabbed thrice. Although Lee claimed that he only meant to rob and the stabbing was meant to incapacitate Tan, the High Court rejected Lee's defence and found Lee guilty of murdering Tan, and sentenced him to death. Lee's appeal was dismissed and he was hanged on 29 July 1994.
On 1 December 1990, at Singapore's Tanjong Katong Road, a 20-year-old Malaysian woman named Wong Mee Hiong was stabbed to death inside her rented house and her body was wrapped in a blanket before being hidden in a storeroom. Wong's corpse was discovered by her fiancé and ten days after her killing, Wong's killer Yap Biew Hian, a fellow tenant of the house and also a Malaysian, was arrested for the case and charged. Yap, who admitted to killing the victim with intent to rob her, was sentenced to death three years after he murdered Wong.
On 8 August 1995, a 26-year-old prostitute named Ching Bee Ing was stabbed seven times by her 35-year-old co-worker Teo Kim Hong at a brothel along Teck Lim Road. Ching, a Malaysian, died as a result of four fatal knife wounds to her liver and heart. Teo, a Singaporean, was charged with murder after she was arrested for the brutal stabbing. Teo was found guilty and sentenced to death in January 1996, and after the loss of her appeal, Teo was hanged on 30 August 1996.
On 2 April 2004, a 56-year-old Singaporean and scrap car dealer named Bock Tuan Thong was found dead inside the boot of his brother's car at a multi-storey carpark in Boon Keng, Singapore. According to witnesses, Bock was last seen with two to three men, who were inside the car with him and assaulted him.
On 4 May 1988, while he was driving to Old Toh Tuck Road, 48-year-old taxi driver Jaswant Singh was robbed by four people, and he died eight days later in a coma, as a result of the grievous injuries he suffered. The four suspects, who were all male, were arrested between 1989 and 1990 and charged with murder. Eventually, only one of the assailants, Murgan Ramasamy, was found guilty of murder and sentenced to death in March 1993. After losing his appeal and death row plea for clemency, Murgan was hanged on 16 September 1994. The remaining three attackers were instead found guilty of lesser charges of robbery with hurt, and sentenced to jail terms between five years and 78 months, in addition to caning.
On 8 October 1993, at his Jalan Berseh flat, an Indian moneychanger named Shamsul Hameed was killed by his friend Jahabar Bagurudeen. Bagurudeen, a businessman, was said to have killed Shamsul due to them having argued earlier about sharing a prostitute. Bagurudeen was sentenced to death after the trial court accepted the same prostitute's testimony that she saw Bagurudeen killing the victim, and rejected Bagurudeen's argument that he killed Shamsul out of anger for the victim's alleged mistreatment of Bagurudeen before the murder. After losing his appeal and clemency plea, Bagurudeen was hanged on 2 June 1995.
On 16 February 1988, the eve of Lunar New Year, in Lengkok Bahru, Singapore, 31-year-old Tay Kim Teck was attacked by a group of six men. Tay was stabbed in the chest and later died of his injuries. It was revealed that Tay had earlier assaulted a man named Tan Ai Soon, and the group of six attackers, which included Tan's sons, son-in-law and foster son, were seeking to avenge Tan. All six men were initially charged with murder; however the murder charges for five of the men were later reduced to rioting. The murder charge on the sixth attacker, 22-year-old Koh Swee Beng, remained. Koh was initially sentenced to death and his appeal dismissed; however two days before he was due to be executed, his death sentence was commuted to life imprisonment by President Wee Kim Wee.
On 18 June 2006, 52-year-old Eu Lim Hoklai, the owner of a seafood hawker stall, had fatally stabbed 29-year-old Yu Hongjin, a massage parlour owner and peidu mama from China, while they were arguing with each other and Yu having knifed him on the stomach nine times. It was revealed that Eu, a married father of three, had an affair with Yu after his first few massage sessions at Yu's shop, and after discovering that Yu had been seeing someone else, Eu decided to see her on the day of the murder to break up with her, but it sparked into a fight that ended Yu's life.
On the midnight of 4 February 2002, at their rented flat in Singapore’s Rangoon Road, 34-year-old Jin Yugang, a cleaner from China, had a drinking session with his 32-year-old roommate Wang Hong and other friends, but an argument broke out between the both of them, and it resulted in Jin using a knife to stab Wang multiple times, resulting in Wang's death.
On 23 September 1980, inside a terrace house in Opera Estate, Singapore, 23-year-old babysitter Chia Chun Fong was found dead with a knife stuck to her mouth。 The cause of death, which was previously unknown in Singapore's medical history, was due to the knife cutting through a vertebrae artery while being pushed into the mouth, and it consequently led to Chia dying from excessive blood loss. Chia, who was entrusted to care for the infant son of her neighbour, was later found to have been murdered by her husband's distant relative Tan Cheow Bock, who fled from Singapore after the killing. Tan remained on the run for seven years before he was caught for vehicle theft in Malaysia, and extradited back to Singapore for trial. Close to ten years after the murder of Chia, Tan was found guilty of murdering Chia and sentenced to death by the High Court on 31 August 1990.
References
Notes
↑ His name was also spelt as Lourdusamy Lenin Salvanayagan or Lourdusamy Lenin Selvanayagam.
↑ His name was also spelt as Arunprakash Vaithilingam.
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