Police officers who handled Parti Liyani’s case made lapses: Shanmugam

SINGAPORE — The two police officers who were handling the theft case involving Indonesian maid Parti Liyani made several lapses in the course of investigation, said Law and Home Affairs Minister K Shanmugam on Monday (14 February).

Shanmugam was replying to a question by Chua Chu Kang Member of Parliament Zhulkarnain Abdul Rahim who requested for an update on the internal investigations conducted against the officers.

Parti, who was the former domestic helper of ex-Changi Airport Group chairman Liew Mun Leong, made the news in 2020 after she was acquitted by the High Court of four charges of stealing from her employer’s family. During the extensive hearings into the case, the court heard that lapses were apparently made by the officers involved in its investigations.

Speaking in Parliament, Shanmugam said that a financial penalty was imposed on the two officers for neglect of duty. In a subsequent reply to a clarification sought by Aljunied MP Sylvia Lim, Shanmugam said the amounts of the fine imposed on the two officers were different and calculated based on the number of months of salary increment that they would have gotten.

Shanmugam revealed that the investigation officer (IO) did not visit the scene of crime promptly to carry out investigation and gather evidence, which contributed to a break in the chain of custody for some exhibits. In addition, the IO did not properly verify some of the claims made by the parties during investigations. His supervisor also did not provide sufficient guidance which contributed to the lapses.

The probe into the officers’ handling of the case took into account that the IO was simultaneously handling many ongoing investigations, prosecutions, and conducting arrest operations, Shanmugam said.

“I have spoken before about the workload challenges that police investigation officers face. The only way to deal with this is to increase police headcount. We have not solved that issue yet. It's a difficult problem not easily solvable because of the general manpower shortage.”

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