Married policewoman falsely accuses colleague of molest when he didn’t leave wife for her after love affair

SINGAPORE — While married to a fellow officer from the Singapore Police Force, Nursyafiqah Jasmi began having an affair with another policeman who was also married.

The pair continued their relationship despite Nursyafiqah's husband finding out about it and confronting the other man.

Things took a bitter turn when her lover repeatedly refused to leave his wife for her. She then decided to take revenge by making a false report of molestation against him, saying that he had molested her twice and harassed her for several months.

On Thursday (July 14), Nursyafiqah, who holds the rank of staff sergeant, was jailed for six weeks.

The 29-year-old Singaporean pleaded guilty to two counts of giving false information to a public servant. She had initially intended to contest the charges.

The Singapore Police Force told TODAY that she has been suspended from duty since April 30 last year, and that it has begun internal action against her following her conviction.

It added: “Officers (with the force) are expected to uphold the law and maintain the highest standards of conduct and integrity. We deal with officers who break the law severely, including charging them in court.”

FAILED TO 'FIGHT FOR RELATIONSHIP'

The court heard that Nursyafiqah began seeing Mr Muhammad Ezriyan Sariman, 34, around mid-2017. Both of them were attached to work at Choa Chu Kang Neighbourhood Police Centre at the time.

During their relationship, they would frequently argue over his refusal to leave his wife for her.

In September 2019, Nursyafiqah’s husband — identified only as Mr Siddiq in court documents — found out about the affair.

Being acquainted with Mr Ezriyan, he contacted the other man to meet him and confronted him about the matter. Mr Ezriyan agreed to end the relationship and stop contact with Nursyafiqah.

However, shortly after this, the pair rekindled their affair, which lasted until January 2020. During this period, they continued to argue about him refusing to leave his wife for her.

Nursyafiqah was also upset with Mr Ezriyan’s failure to “fight for their relationship” when her husband confronted him in September and October 2019, the court heard.

On the evening of Jan 22 in 2020, Nursyafiqah told Mr Ezriyan that her husband had again caught her sending messages to him on the phone, and demanded to meet Mr Ezriyan and his wife.

Mr Ezriyan then met Mr Siddiq and Nursyafiqah alone.

Mr Siddiq challenged him that if he wanted to continue his relationship with Nursyafiqah, he would have to go back home and divorce his wife by pronouncing “talak" on her.

Under Muslim law, this pronouncement is done when a husband wants to divorce his wife.

When Mr Ezriyan refused to do this, Nursyafiqah lamented that he was still choosing his wife over her. She then left with her husband.

Mr Ezriyan continued to reach out to her to mend their relationship, but she told him not to contact her if he was not going to leave his wife.

ALLEGED HARASSMENT

Two weeks later on Feb 3 in 2020, Nursyafiqah decided to file a complaint against Mr Ezriyan with two of her supervisors.

A meeting was set up between her as well as the commander and head of investigations of the Jurong Police Division, which oversees Choa Chu Kang Neighbourhood Police Centre.

She told them that Mr Ezriyan had been harassing her and also kissed her without her consent.

She falsely maintained that she was not in a relationship with him.

When the head of investigations and a police officer attached to the special victim unit reminded her of the consequences of making a false report, Nursyafiqah maintained that Mr Ezriyan had molested her.

After the report was filed, Nursyafiqah gave a statement saying that Mr Ezriyan had kissed her cheek on two occasions without her consent.

She said that they were merely colleagues and she lodged the police report out of fear for her safety.

She claimed that these incidents happened in August 2019 after she gave him a lift home from work. She also alleged that she confronted him on both occasions and he apologised.

In her police statement, Nursyafiqah claimed that he then began calling and messaging her, as well as visiting her near her home and at the office on countless occasions between September 2019 and Jan 30, 2020.

BANNED FROM POLICE CENTRE

The police then began investigating Mr Ezriyan and the case was handed over to Bedok Police Division.

In a second statement to the police, Nursyafiqah maintained that she and Mr Ezriyan were merely colleagues.

She further claimed that she was afraid he would continue stalking her through his access to police cameras, because he was a crime strike force officer.

The police seized her mobile phone for investigations, which eventually revealed numerous text messages showing that they were having an affair.

On Feb 26 in 2020, Nursyafiqah admitted that she had lied in her statements. She admitted to wanting to put a stop to Mr Ezriyan’s efforts to reach out to her, because she was afraid she would be tempted to patch things up with him again.

Mr Ezriyan’s mobile phone was seized and he was asked to take a two-week leave from work to prevent interaction between him and Nursyafiqah. He also had to give statements to his colleagues.

He was then banned from returning to Choa Chu Kang Neighbourhood Police Centre and carrying arms. He was posted to a backend role at the Jurong Division Headquarters Support and Technical Branch instead.

For each charge of giving false information to a public servant, Nursyafiqah could have been jailed for up to two years or fined, or punished with both.