Police investigations into conduct of WP's Pritam Singh and Faisal Manap still ongoing: Shanmugam

SINGAPORE — The police are still in the process of investigating the conduct of Workers' Party (WP) secretary-general Pritam Singh and vice-chair Faisal Manap in relation to former party member Raeesah Khan's hearings before a parliamentary committee.

Home Affairs and Law Minister K Shanmugam said this on Tuesday (Feb 7) in response to a parliamentary question from Mr Zhulkarnain Abdul Rahim, Member of Parliament (MP) for Chua Chu Kang Group Representative Constituency (GRC).

Last February, Parliament voted to refer the conduct of the two opposition party leaders to the Public Prosecutor, or the Attorney-General, for further probe.

This was due to Mr Singh's conduct during the Committee of Privilege's hearings and Mr Faisal's refusal to answer relevant questions.

The committee, chaired by Speaker of Parliament Tan Chuan-Jin, was convened to investigate former WP MP Raeesah Khan over lies that she had told the House in 2021. She claimed to have accompanied a sexual assault victim to a police station where the victim was treated insensitively, but this was later found to be untrue.

Mr Singh and Mr Faisal were among the people who turned up before the committee for its hearings.

The committee submitted a 1,180-page report after the hearings and Parliament voted in favour of the committee’s recommendation to levy a fine of S$35,000 against Ms Raeesah. She has since resigned as MP for Sengkang GRC.

Parliament also voted in favour of the committee’s recommendation that Mr Singh and Mr Faisal be referred to the Public Prosecutor to "consider if criminal proceedings ought to be instituted".

The Attorney-General then referred the duo's conduct to the police for investigation. 

In a statement on April 29 last year, the police said that they had been "going through the evidence provided by Parliament” and would be engaging persons relevant to the case as part of the investigations into the possible offences disclosed.

After the committee’s report was released, one lawyer told TODAY that any criminal proceedings could take months or years to complete.