Facing the law: Chelvam (left) was the last of three people to be convicted for abusing Don, who weighed a mere 24kg when she died in 2016. — The Straits Times/ANN
Suspended police officer Kevin Chelvam was sentenced to 10 years’ jail over his involvement in one of Singapore’s worst fatal maid abuse cases.
After a trial in April, District Judge Teoh Ai Lin convicted the 46-year-old Traffic Police officer of one count of abetting his then wife Gaiyathiri Murugayan to voluntarily cause grievous hurt by starving Piang Ngaih Don, 24.
Chelvam, who was her registered employer, was also convicted of one count of voluntarily causing hurt by grabbing the maid’s hair and lifting her off the ground.
The judge also convicted him of one count each of giving false information to a police officer, and causing evidence relating to the case to disappear by dismantling a CCTV recorder installed in his Bishan flat.
Chelvam was the last of three people to be convicted for abusing the Myanmar maid, who weighed a mere 24kg when she died in 2016.
She weighed 39kg when she started working for Chelvam’s family on May 28, 2015.
He has been suspended from the Singapore Police Force since August 2016. Chelvam and Gaiyathiri divorced in 2020.
In 2021, Gaiyathiri, then 41, was sentenced to 30 years in prison, the longest jail term meted out here in a maid abuse case.
Two years later, her mother, Prema S. Naraynasamy, then 64, was sentenced to 17 years’ jail over her role in the case. Both women had pleaded guilty to their charges.
Don had not been given sufficient food for at least 35 days.
In earlier proceedings, the judge said Chelvam chose not to intervene despite knowing Gaiyathiri was starving the maid, who stole salt and seasoning to quell her hunger.
Doctors who had testified at Chelvam’s trial said the maid’s limbs looked like they were just skin wrapping bone. They told the court she had a body mass index similar to smeone suffering from advanced cancer or from extensive tuberculosis.
Don died of brain injury on July 26, 2016, with severe blunt trauma to her neck after 14 months of repeated abuse. She was working outside of Myanmar for the first time.
Deputy public prosecutors Stephanie Koh, Sean Teh and Cheronne Lim said there were CCTV cameras in the flat to monitor Don and the couple’s two children, aged one and four at the time.
Investigators retrieved 35 days’ worth of footage, recorded between June 21 and July 26 in 2016, which showed her being burned with a heated iron, choked, shaken violently, punched, kicked and stomped on. — The Straits Times/ANN
