An Indian engineer Prabu Natarajan, 33, was sentenced to three weeks in jail and fined for $2,500 for molesting a woman and house trespass in Singapore on Dec.14 by a Singapore court, reported The Straits Times.
The Indian national admitted to rubbing his thigh against a 23-year-old woman, who was a part-time tutor, several times along the Choa Chu Kang Loop on a bus on Nov 21 last year. The tutor and Natarajan boarded the bus at 5.45 pm on Nov. 21 and he molested her repeatedly while being seated next to her.
He got off the same bus stop as he lived in the estate and followed the woman to Block 290 at Choa Chu Kung Avenue 3 where she was getting into a lift. He jumped inside the lift just as the door was about to close, scaring the woman.
He then asked her why she was scared and started rubbing her arm. He also asked her if she liked him touching her during the bus journey.
Natarajan was fined $2,500 for another charge–house trespass–that he had committed five years ago on July 4, 2012 in Choa Chu Kang Street 52. He was loitering in the corridor of the Housing Board at 2 am and opened a sliding window. When he saw a woman sleeping, he tried to disturb her. He ran away as soon as the woman woke up.
“This was a pastime of his, especially after a night of drinking with some friends and if he did not go to Geylang to visit prostitutes,” Deputy Public Prosecutor Chee Ee Ling said, reported The Straits Times. He would loiter outside Housing Development Board apartments to peep in through windows to see if women were sleeping inside.
He received three weeks jail for the outrage of modesty offence. DPP Ling said that the offence occurred on public transport and the touch was a prolonged and persistent rub. Natarjan trapped the victim at the window seat while he repeatedly molested her.
Natarajan could have received jail time for two years, fined, caned or received any combined punishments for outrage of modesty in Singapore. The Indian engineer is married with a child. His lawyer has said that he has sought counselling and treatment.
This is not the first time that an Indian man was sentenced in Singapore for outraging a woman’s modesty. A 46-year-old Indian IT manager, Rajagopala Soundararaja Panneer Selvan, was sentenced to nine weeks in jail for molesting a 28-year-old woman in a coach of Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) while travelling on the East-West Line between in March this year . He followed the woman in the metro and pressed his body against hers. She later got off the metro and went to the police to lodge a complaint.
In October, two Indians were accused of molesting women in Singapore.
Dadyala Balwinder Singh, 30, allegedly molested a 37- year-old woman in a pub at Orchard Towers while Jagjit Singh, 31, was accused of molesting two women–aged 24 and 41–in another nightspot at the same shopping center.