Indian National Sentenced to 14 Years for Sexual Assault of Minor in Singapore

Quick Summary

• Incident: An Indian national, Ramalingam Selvasekaran (58), was sentenced to over 14 years in jail by the Singapore High Court for sexually assaulting an 11-year-old girl twice in October 2021.
• charges: Convicted of one count of rape and two counts of outrage of modesty. He represented himself during the trial and maintained his innocence.
• Sentence Details: No caning due to age (above 50); instead, his jail sentence includes additional time equivalent to 15 strokes of the cane. Granted bail at SGD80,000 pending appeal but must wear an electronic tag and check in regularly with police.

trial Highlights:

• Ramalingam argued that key evidence was missing, such as police camera footage or DNA on the victim’s body, citing erectile dysfunction as a defense against charges of rape.
• Justice Aidan Xu stated the prosecution had proven its case beyond a reasonable doubt and dismissed these arguments based on witness testimony from experts and statements admitting elements of guilt provided earlier by Ramalingam to police.

Context behind Assault Incident:

The crimes occurred inside Ramalingam’s provision store in jurong West when the victim returned later that day after having initially visited his shop for ice cream.

Indian Opinion Analysis

This case underscores ongoing efforts across jurisdictions globally-including Singapore-to apply rigorous investigative measures to sensitive cases involving sexual violence against minors. The careful evaluation provided by Justice Xu highlights an emphasis on corroborative evidence combined with testimonial reliability rather than reliance solely on physical evidence like DNA samples or camera footage.

For India, this incident serves two points worth reflecting upon: First is ensuring appropriate legal frameworks are continually updated addressing fugitive/migrant rights balancing extradition-finality enforcement updates situations locally tighten-equivalent adjacency