More than two years’ jail for man who attacked, abducted and poured petrol on wife on suspicion of affair

• Murugan Nondoh wanted to kill his wife because he thought she was having an affair
• He abducted her from her workplace, doused her with petrol and drove her around aimlessly for hours
• He eventually agreed to take her back to Johor Baru and was arrested at Tuas Checkpoint
• He was given a jail sentence but will be released immediately as the jail term was backdated to his remand date

SINGAPORE — In a jealous rage after catching his wife chatting with another man, Murugan Nondoh decided to kill her.

He doused Ms Krishnaveny Subramaniam in petrol and assaulted her before abducting her from her workplace in Woodlands.

He then drove her around for hours on his motorcycle, until eventually agreeing to take her back to Johor Baru, Malaysia, where they lived.

At Tuas Checkpoint, police officers rescued Ms Krishnaveny and arrested Murugan.

On Wednesday (Sept 29), the jobless Malaysian man was sentenced to two years, two months and six weeks’ jail. 

The 39-year-old had pleaded guilty last week to one charge each of abduction, criminal intimidation, voluntarily causing hurt and having an offensive weapon on him.

As his sentence was backdated to his date of remand on July 4, 2019, he will be released immediately. 

The incident took place two years ago.

BAD TEMPER

The court heard that Murugan had tied the knot with Ms Krishnaveny, now 40, in Malaysia in 2007. They lived in Johor Baru.

They are now separated and undergoing divorce proceedings.

Ms Krishnaveny had been unhappy in her marriage for some time because Murugan had a bad temper, physically abused her and was frequently in debt due to his gambling habits. She then began chatting with a man in February 2019, though she never met him in person.

About a week after she began chatting with this man, Murugan saw a phone text message from him wishing Ms Krishnaveny a good morning. 

Murugan then used her mobile phone, video-called the man and asked for his name.

After hanging up, Murugan confronted his wife but she denied having an affair, saying she had not even met the man in person. 

Ms Krishnaveny went to live with her mother later that month and filed for divorce, blocking Murugan’s mobile phone number. He used different numbers to contact her and visited her mother’s home a few times, but she refused to reconcile with him.

In June 2019, Murugan learnt that Ms Krishnaveny had started working as a quality controller in Woodlands and frequently crossed the borders via the immigration checkpoint. He then began waiting there for her.

When she saw him on June 25, 2019, she tried to run away but he chased after her, grabbed her bag and walked away. He found her work permit showing her workplace address, before she got her bag back with the help of police officers.

‘CONFIRM BURN HER’

A few days later, Murugan told his Malaysian friend through WhatsApp voice messages: “Women like (Ms Krishnaveny) should not be alive at all… (I) will confirm burn her 100 per cent.”

The other man told Murugan to be patient but he replied that he had shown “almost four months of patience”. 

Murugan later left more voice messages to his friend, saying that if he could not be with his wife then nobody else should, and revealed his plan to find and kill her in Singapore.

Knowing he may not return to Malaysia, he gave his friend instructions on how to deal with his belongings and property. 

He then entered Singapore and went to look for Ms Krishnaveny at her workplace. He failed and returned to Johor Baru, but returned over the next few days with the intention of abducting and killing her.

He came again to Singapore on July 1, 2019 with an empty 5-litre bottle that he had filled with petrol. However, he could not find her at her workplace, so he hid the bottle there and returned to Malaysia.

The next day, he showed up again, ambushing her from behind while she was talking to her niece on the phone. He poured the entire bottle of petrol on her head, causing her to ingest some when she shouted for help.

When he threatened to burn and kill her if she did not leave with him, she got onto his motorcycle. He yelled at her using vulgar phrases, used his helmet to hit her head, and punched her face and chest.

He also threatened Ms Krishnaveny with a penknife to get her to unlock her mobile phone but she refused. He then sent his friend a photo of himself with her on the bike.

As Ms Krishnaveny had not hung up her phone call with her niece, the other woman immediately recorded what was going on.

Murugan rode around aimlessly for the next five hours, stopping sometimes to berate his wife, threatening to burn her and kill himself afterwards.

When they got to Choa Chu Kang Cemetery, she tried to persuade him to take her back to Johor Baru to resolve their problems but he refused. She soon gave up hope that he would release her, telling him to go ahead and burn her.

At this point, Murugan called his friend, who tried to dissuade him. After hanging up, Murugan made her promise “upon her brother” that if he took her back to Johor Baru, she would not cause problems for him and she would reconcile with him.

She repeatedly assured him and he agreed to take her back home.

They got to Tuas Checkpoint at about 11pm and unsuccessfully tried to scan their passports and thumbprints to get through. 

Police officers arrived shortly after and rescued Ms Krishnaveny, who smelled strongly of petrol.

She was taken to the emergency department of Ng Teng Fong General Hospital.

For his most serious offence of abduction, Murugan could have been jailed for up to seven years, fined, caned, or gotten any combination of the three.