SINGAPORE: A singer who had consumed between 10 and 15 cups of whisky molested a female freelance production crew member after a show at the Mediacorp Campus.
Sivabalan Siva Prasad Menon, 42, was fined $3,000 (RM10,600) on Feb 5 after pleading guilty to one count of molestation.
Two other charges, including one more molestation charge, were considered during sentencing.
The woman cannot be named due to a gag order. The Straits Times is also not disclosing the exact date of when the crime took place to protect her identity, and details about the show were not disclosed in court documents.
However, there is no gag order on Sivabalan’s identity.
On the day of the incident in 2022, the victim reported at the Mediacorp Campus in Stars Avenue at around 11am to work on the production of the show.
Sivabalan, who was hired as a singer and dancer for the show, was also there.
Between 3pm and 11.30pm, he downed up to 15 cups of whisky and became intoxicated, said Deputy Public Prosecutor Grace Teo.
After the show ended at 12.20am the next day, the victim and a male friend waited for a lift at Basement 1 of the campus.
The DPP said: “The lift doors opened and the accused walked out of the lift. When he saw the victim, he walked towards her, grabbed her by the jaw and kissed her once on her right cheek... as the victim tried to pull away.”
After kissing the victim, the accused released her, said the DPP, adding that less than three seconds elapsed between the accused grabbing the victim’s jaw and releasing her.
The victim told Sivabalan that she did not like being treated in such a manner. Her friend then stood between them and told Sivabalan to leave.
The victim and her friend walked away before they called for the next lift. The two also noticed that Sivabalan, who left the vicinity soon after, reeked of alcohol.
They went to a room for production crew members, where the victim cried and hyperventilated because she felt stressed by the incident, said DPP Teo.
The victim alerted the police later that day.
On Feb 5, defence lawyer Kanthan Raghavendra said that this incident was Sivabalan’s first brush with the law.
The lawyer from Tan Leroy & Associates also stressed that the contact was fleeting and there was no intrusion of the victim’s private parts.
For molestation, an offender can be jailed for up to three years, fined, caned or receive any combination of such punishments. - The Straits Times/ANN
