A female police offer was found guilty of forging a statement of a woman who had reported a case of molestation. The forged statement gave the impression that the alleged victim didn’t mind being touched. As a result, the alleged victim was warned for making a police report.
The officer in question, Kalaivani Kalimuthu, 38, who was stationed at Ang Mo Kio Police Division, had apparently forged the statement because she couldn’t meet the victim face to face but wanted to conclude the investigation quickly.
Kalaivani, who has been interdicted from the Singapore Police Force since Sept 14 last year, was found guilty of committing forgery and is due to be sentenced on 8 January 2019. She faces up to four years in jail and a fine.
It is interesting to note that the officer was involved in 14-year-old Benjamin Lim’s case back in 2016 where she prepared the final report for his arrest.
Here’s what happened:
In court, the Deputy Public Prosecutor (DPP) Stephanie Chew said that the alleged victim has lodged a police report and provided a statement on 27 March 2016 saying she had been molested.
In April 2016, Ms Kalaivani was assigned to investigate the case which was classified as ‘outrage of modesty’. She was supposed to interview the woman who made the report but ‘encountered difficulty in arranging for an interview’. Later that year in November, Kalaivani resorted to forging a statement in her office just before she was due to be transferred to a different role in December of the same year.
In the forged statement, she claimed that the woman had also touched the alleged molester and she did not mind being touched herself. Kalaivani then forged the woman’s signature onto the statement using the initial report to trace the signature.
The statement along with her investigation papers were then forwarded to the officer in charge with a recommendation that no further action be taken.
Subsequently, the investigation papers were sent to the Attorney-General’s Chambers (AGC) with the same recommendation that no further action be taken. There was also an added recommendation that the alleged victim be warned for providing false information.
A month later, the ACG directed the police to get another statement from the woman and investigate the details and extent of the ‘false statement which she provided’.
When the woman was interviewed by Senior Investigation Officer (SIO) Pang Shijie, she denied making the statement or visiting the police statement. Upon further investigation, SIO Pang found that there was no record of her visit on the date that officer Kalaivani purportedly recorded her statement. SIO Pang proceeded to lodge a police report on Aug 18 last year.
Following this disgraceful act of one of their officer, the police released a statement saying that SPF officers are expected to uphold the law and maintain the highest standards of conduct and integrity. “We deal severely with officers who break the law, including charging them in court.”
