Significant resources deployed to probe Raeesah Khan’s allegations: police
SINGAPORE — The police said on Monday (13 December) that they had deployed significant resources to investigate the allegation by former Workers’ Party (WP) MP Raeesah Khan in Parliament about a sexual assault case.
Police officers had combed through all records of visitors to all police stations in Singapore since 1 January 2017 following Raeesah’s claim, according to a post by the police on Facebook.
Raeesah alleged in a parliamentary session on 3 August that she had accompanied a rape victim to a police station previously and claimed that the victim was subject to insensitive remarks by a police officer about her dressing and questions on whether she had been drinking.
In a subsequent parliamentary sitting on 4 October, Raeesah maintained her allegations when questioned by Minister for Law and Home Affairs K Shanmugam.
On 1 November, Raeesah made a personal statement in Parliament, clarifying that she had lied in the House on 3 August and 4 October. On 30 November, the WP announced Raeesah had stepped down as party member and MP.
The revelation prompted the setting up of a Committee of Privileges (COP) to investigate Raeesah’s lies in response to a complaint filed by the Leader of the House Indranee Rajah.
"A substantial amount of resources was dedicated to this, because it was a statement made by an MP in Parliament, and was taken seriously and at face value," the police said on Monday.
The police also considered the possibility that Raeesah might have accompanied the alleged victim without entering a police station.
As such, the police went through more than 1,400 sexual assault and related cases from 2018 to 2021, before narrowing the list to cases possibly matching Raeesah’s claim.
The police statement comes after the release of the third report by the COP on Sunday in which WP chief Pritam Singh said in his testimony last Friday that Raeesah’s allegation did not cause the police to be adversely impacted.
The Leader of the Opposition noted that police are not a "broken-back” organisation. He also questioned the amount of work put in by the police to check on the allegation, and didn’t feel that a wrong had been done to the police arising from Raeesah’s allegation.
The police said that in addition to the loss of man-hours to look into the allegation, there was also delay in their handling of other matters and cases.
The police added that public trust was integral to enable officers to carry out their duties.
"Comments that downplay or dismiss the impact of false allegations against the police, are discouraging. They can also affect the morale of our officers, who work hard every day to keep Singaporeans safe and secure."
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