SINGAPORE — A woman who is in jail for joining her daughter in abusing a maid to death has received an additional imprisonment term for asking her son-in-law to remove a closed-circuit television recorder that held evidence of the crimes.

Prema S Naraynasamy, 64, will have to serve another three years' jail on top of her current jail term of 14 years for abusing Myanmar maid Piang Ngaih Don.

Prema had pleaded guilty to one count of instigating her son-in-law, 44-year-old Kevin Chelvam, to cause evidence of the offences to disappear.

Piang Ngaih Don died of a brain injury with severe blunt trauma to her neck on July 26, 2016, after 14 months of repeated abuse at the hands of Prema and her daughter, 43-year-old Gaiyathiri Murugayan.

The maid was punched, stamped on and starved until she weighed only 24kg. She was also tied to a window grille at night in the days before her death and assaulted if she tried to rummage for food in the dustbin.

The offence involving the CCTV recorder occurred when Prema knew that the authorities were heading to the house.

When Chelvam arrived home, Prema talked to him in a bedroom and directed him to dismantle the CCTV recorder so it could be disposed of.

Chelvam, a police officer, was initially reluctant to do so, but allegedly complied at his mother-in-law's insistence.

Prema later slipped the recorder into her daughter-in-law's bag while the police were in the house, and told her in Tamil: "I have kept something in your bag, do something with it."

Despite the CCTV recorder passing from her daughter-in-law's hands to her son's friend, the police managed to recover it after questioning Prema's son.

The prosecution had sought at least three years' jail for Prema's additional offence, while defence lawyer Rai Satish asked for between 18 and 24 months' jail instead.

Gaiyathiri was sentenced to 30 years' jail in 2021 for her role in the case. Her appeal against her sentence was dismissed.

Chelvam is set for trial next month for his involvement in the case.

He has been suspended from the police force since August 2016. CNA