SINGAPORE — As closed-circuit television (CCTV) footage showing how his wife and mother-in-law tortured his domestic helper the night before she died was played in court on Thursday (July 20), Kevin Chelvam, 44, shook his head and looked visibly uncomfortable.

Seated in the dock on the first day of his trial for his alleged involvement in the death of his Myanmar domestic helper Piang Ngaih Don, Chelvam also interrupted court proceedings three times, which not only delayed the start of the hearing by 15 minutes but also disrupted the cross examination of a witness.

Chelvam, a staff sergeant of police who has been suspended from service since Aug 8, 2016, faces a total of four charges which were first slapped on him in 2016.  

Two of the charges pertain to maid abuse offences where he allegedly grabbed her hair and lifted her body off the ground on June 24, 2016 and also abetted causing Piang grievous hurt by not providing sufficient food.

The other two charges are in relation to events after Piang's death, on July 26, 2016, where he allegedly provided false information to an investigative officer and removed a CCTV digital video recorder system from the crime scene.

A fifth charge of allegedly using criminal force on Piang by hitting her on her left shoulder with a toy bat has been stood down for the time being.

Chelvam's wife Gaiyathiri is currently serving a 30-year jail term while his mother-in-law Prema Naraynasamy is serving a 17-year jail term for their roles in Piang's death.

COMPLICIT WITH 'CONSCIOUS INDIFFERENCE': PROSECUTION

In the prosecution's opening statement before District Judge Teoh Ai Lin, Deputy Public Prosecutor (DPP) Stephanie Koh told the court that as Piang's employer, Chelvam was fully aware of the atrocities that occurred under his roof. 

He was "complicit" in the women's offences by his "conscious indifference" to the deceased's plight and had allowed it to continue until Piang's death.

While Piang was employed by the family, she was the frequent subject of abuse and torture by the women of the house who would not only hit her with objects, but also choked her and burned her with a heated iron.

Piang had also been deprived of food and water which caused her to lose 15kg. She weighed just 24kg when she died of brain injury with severe blunt force trauma to her neck on July 26 in 2016.

The prosecution said that over the course of the trial, it will present evidence in the form of CCTV footages, WhatsApp messages between Chelvam and his wife endorsing the deprivation of food as a form of punishment, and testimonies of witnesses to show that Chelvam not only had knowledge of Piang's daily abuse, but had also participated in it himself.

Eleven out of eighteen witnesses are scheduled to take the witness stand, which includes investigative officers, Chelvam's brother-in-law Kishore, wife Gaiyathiri, and his mother-in-law Prema.

Before the witnesses were called, DPP Sean Teh went through an agreed statement of facts between the prosecution and defence in court, and played CCTV footages of the abuse on July 25 and 26 in 2016 that took place in the helper's room, the kitchen area and the living room area.

This was done to give the court some context to the gravity of the abuse which ultimately led to the death of Piang. 

While the footages were being played, Chelvam could be seen getting increasingly uncomfortable as he shook his head while also lightly hitting his forehead with a look of disbelief at the footage of Piang being dragged across the living room by his mother-in-law.

DPP Teh said that the agreed statement of facts also highlighted Chelvam's involvement with the CCTV recorder and the eventual retrieval of the CCTV footage from his brother-in-law, Kishore.

PROSECUTION'S CASE FOR THE CCTV FOOTAGE

As Chelvam had previously admitted in his recorded statement to police that he dismantled the CCTV recorder system by disconnecting it from the power source while having knowledge that it captured events in the house, the prosecution believes that Chelvam had reason to believe that both women had committed murder through their repeated abuse on Piang.

Chelvam was also aware that Piang was unconscious before he left for work on July 26, 2016, which was shown in a CCTV footage that was played in court where he was seen entering the helper's room and using his foot to nudge the unresponsive Piang who was lying at the foot of the bed, near the window.

Chelvam's first day of trial saw one investigative officer took the stand to give his statements about the CCTV recorder.

Senior Inspector (SI) Muralidaran Balakrishnan from the Criminal Investigation Division (CID) was part of a team that arrived at the crime scene in Gaiyathiri's house at around 3.30pm on July 26, 2016.

His first task was to gather information from the neighbours before he was asked to speak to Chelvam about the dismantled CCTV recorder about an hour later.

SI Muralidaran said: "He told me that he had a tenant who was renting the room and he dismantled the recorder six months ago, and had no idea where he put it so I asked him to search for it as we needed it for investigations."

When DPP Koh asked SI Muralidaran if he had seen Chelvam looking for the CCTV recorder, the investigator responded that he recalled seeing Chelvam opening up a wardrobe and rummaging through it but he still couldn't find it when the police left at about 7pm that evening.

During the cross-examination of SI Muralidaran by Chelvam's lawyer Pratap Kishan, Chelvam requested to speak with his lawyer.

This was the third time Chelvam had interrupted court proceedings to confer with his lawyer.

The trial was scheduled to start at 9.30am but as Chelvam wanted to discuss some issues on the case with his lawyer prior to the start, hearing was delayed by 15 minutes, with Chelvam and his counsel stepping out of the court room for their discussion.

Later, when court resumed in the afternoon at 2.15pm, Chelvam once again asked to confer with his lawyer, with the discussion lasting about 10 minutes.

In response, the judge said that she would grant Chelvam this last request and told his counsel that the court cannot keep standing down for his client just to give instructions. 

In total, Chelvam delayed court proceedings by about 45 minutes.

The trial, expected to last 10 days, will resume on Friday with the next witness being Inspector Kelvin Leong who was the initial investigative officer at the crime scene on July 26, 2016.