• Staff Sergeant Mahendran Selvarajoo admitted to taking bribes in the form of sex from two female suspects
• He told one of them that she was not sent to prison immediately due to his help
• He told another victim that he would help her deal with her employer’s purported queries about her case

SINGAPORE — A policeman lied to a woman suspected of being involved in credit card fraud that she was not sent to prison immediately due to his help.

Staff Sergeant Mahendran Selvarajoo then told her to “do (her) thing” and he would do more to help with her case. The suspect, who cannot be named due to a court order, ended up having sex with him at the back seat of his car.

The 32-year-old investigation officer with the commercial crimes squad, who was attached to the Clementi Police Division, had also looked through the woman’s laptop and seized it upon discovering that it contained photographs that featured nudity.

He had two other victims: A thief who performed sex acts on him, and another whose sexually explicit videos came into his possession under the guise of investigations.

For taking bribes in the form of sexual favours, and for copying data from two suspects’ laptops to his own devices, Mahendran was sentenced to two years in jail on Wednesday (Sept 23).

He had pleaded guilty to two charges under the Prevention of Corruption Act, and two charges under the Computer Misuse Act.

The matters came to light on May 1 last year after the Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau received information that the accused had received sexual gratification from a female subject in exchange for helping her avoid prosecution. It did not mention which victim had reported it.

HOW HE DUPED HIS VICTIMS

Court documents stated that Mahendran’s duties were to carry out commercial crime investigations that entailed interviewing witnesses, among other things.

On April 25 last year, he recorded the statement of a woman involved in a case of misuse of credit card details.

Although his supervisor informed him later that day that the case would be handled by a different police division, he reached out to the suspect four days later.

They met at Nex mall in Serangoon, where he told her that he needed to search her laptop for evidence relating to the alleged fraud.

They went to her home and he got her to sign an amended police statement that had new paragraphs inserted to highlight factors in her favour, such as her personal difficulties and previous clean criminal record.

Deputy Public Prosecutor Charis Low said that Mahendran did so because he wanted to show her that he had the authority and power to help her.

Mahendran also took her laptop before leaving her home.

He came back later that night to return the laptop, but not before copying six folders containing the victim’s personal photographs and videos onto his own devices.

It was 12.40am when he arrived, and he told the woman to enter his vehicle.

He drove to a multi-storey car park, where he touched her thighs and kissed her on the lips.

When she asked whether they would get into trouble, he told her not to worry, claiming that she was not sent to prison on the first day of investigations due to his help.

She then had sex with him as she wanted Mahendran to help her to avoid being prosecuted for the alleged credit card fraud, the court heard.

Two months before that, on Feb 26 last year, Mahendran reached out to another woman who had received a stern warning in lieu of prosecution for committing shop theft in 2017.

He lied to her that her company's human resources department had contacted the police to ask about the case. He told her that he could help by telling her employers that she had merely been “assisting” with investigations.

Mahendran later asked her to “help (him) to release”, which led to her performing sex acts on him, the court heard.

HE ONCE RECEIVED AWARD FOR ‘EXEMPLARY PERFORMANCE’

The prosecution asked for 30 months to be imposed, while Mahendran’s lawyer Kalidass Murugaiyan sought a jail term of 18 months.

In his mitigation plea, Mr Kalidass said that Mahendran is a “decorated police officer” who had earned numerous accolades over the course of his duties, including a Director’s Award from the Commercial Affairs Department last year in recognition of his “exemplary performance”.

He argued that Mahendran ought not to be punished more severely than former Singapore Civil Defence Force commissioner Peter Benedict Lim Sin Pang, who was jailed six months for corruptly obtaining sex for business in a high-profile case.

For each corruption charge, Mahendran could have been jailed up to five years or fined up to S$100,000, or both.

In response to TODAY's queries, the Singapore Police Force said that Mahendran has not been allowed to work since May 15 last year.

Following his conviction, the police have also started disciplinary proceedings against him.

“Officers of the Singapore Police Force are expected to uphold the law and maintain the highest standards of conduct and integrity,” the police said. “We deal severely with officers who break the law, including charging them in court.”