Former TV presenter found guilty of sex charge

CRAFTY, cunning, pretentious and guilty, said the judge, when he ruled on Tuesday that former TV presenter Vidya Shankar Aiyar had indeed molested a 30-year-old woman after a party last year.  

District Judge Victor Yeo described the 37-year-old bachelor as a “hunting wolf in sheep’s clothing” and not the “clear and candid” person his lawyers Subhas Anandan and Anand Nalachandran, had made him out to be. 

He used the words “crafty” or “cunning” no fewer than six times in the course of delivering his judgement.  

Shankar is due back in court next week for sentencing. He could be jailed for up to two years and caned or fined.  

On Tuesday, the judge agreed with Deputy Public Prosecutor David Khoo that Shankar’s testimony of what had happened that November night was the result of his “memorising a script.” 

He made it clear he did not believe the woman had flirted with Shankar and hadn’t resisted his advances at the party, as claimed. 

Said the judge: “He said a warm feeling developed between them based on their interaction during the party ... but when questioned by the prosecution on the specific details, like when the woman began flirting with him, he became evasive.” 

Nor did he believe Shankar’s claims that while they were in a taxi, the woman had offered to drop him off at his Chuan Park apartment. 

Said the judge: “I was totally unconvinced and unimpressed by his repeated claims that he was extremely concerned about the woman’s state and condition. 

“If he were genuinely concerned about her well-being, it would be highly illogical and unthinkable for him to accept her alleged offer to send him home.” 

Shankar had claimed that in his apartment, given his intimacy with the woman, it was not “out of line” for him to sleep naked next to her.  

This sounded “scripted and rehearsed” to the judge. 

“Given that the woman was extremely intoxicated at that time, her repeated articulation that she wanted to go home, the fact they hardly knew each other, and had met for about four hours at the party, he could not reasonably believe that she would consent to him removing her clothes,” said Yeo. 

Shankar, an Indian national who had worked with MediaCorp for about three years as a broadcast journalist and a presenter, appeared sombre. 

Shankar’s accuser, who was not in court, said she still felt “numb”. But “I feel vindicated. The truth has prevailed and justice has been served.” – The Straits Times/Asia News Network