CNB officer accused of assaulting man to force confession on drugs found in bag
UPDATE: According to the Central Narcotics Bureau, the officer has been interdicted from service since 5 October this year.
SINGAPORE - A Central Narcotics Bureau (CNB) officer has been charged with assaulting a man in order to extort a confession from him regarding drugs found in his bag.
Narcotics Officer Vengedesh Raj Nainar Nagarajan, a 32-year-old Singaporean, is accused of kicking and punching Sivabalan Kanniappan on three occasions on 2 January 2017. He also allegedly slapped Sivabalan on one of the occasions.
Vengedesh faces three counts of voluntarily causing hurt to extort confession, according to his charge sheets tendered in court last Friday (4 October).
All three instances, which are said to have occurred between 5.58am and 9.30am, allegedly took place in the toilet of a CNB office in Woodlands Checkpoint.
According to his charge sheets, each time Vengedesh assaulted Sivabalan, he sought to extort a confession that Sivabalan knew about the first bundle of drugs found in his raincoat bag, that his drugs contained heroin, and that Sivabalan knew about a second bundle of drugs found in his raincoat bag.
Vengedesh will return to court on 1 November.
A CNB spokesperson told Yahoo News Singapore that the officer has been interdicted from service since 5 October this year.
For voluntarily causing hurt to extort confession, Vengedesh faces up to seven years' jail with fine or caning if convicted on each count.
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