SINGAPORE — A woman who, with her daughter, viciously abused and starved their domestic worker until she died, was hauled back to court on Thursday (June 15) where she admitted to trying to conceal closed circuit television (CCTV) footage of the abuse. 

Prema S Naraynasamy, 64, is serving a 14-year jail term after pleading guilty last November to 48 charges relating to her part in the abuse of her daughter's helper, Myanmar national Piang Ngaih Don, 24.

On Thursday, Prema pleaded guilty to one count of causing the disappearance of a CCTV system. She is due to be sentenced on June 26.

In June 2021, Prema's daughter, Gaiyathiri Murugayan, now aged 43, was sentenced to 30 years' jail after pleading guilty to 28 charges relating to her key role in the helper's death.

A trial of Kevin Chelvam, Gaiyathiri's husband at the time, is set to start next month. The couple has since divorced. Chelvam is a suspended police staff sergeant.

WHAT HAPPENED

Deputy Public Prosecutor (DPP) Sean Teh told the court that the new charge against Prema stems from the removal of the CCTV system which contained footage from various CCTV cameras around the house.

These CCTV cameras were used to monitor Piang and Gaiyathiri's children.

The CCTV cameras continuously recorded footage and had a storage capacity of 35 days before being automatically overwritten.

The footage captured the abuse and ill treatment Piang suffered at the hands of Prema and her daughter from June 21, 2016, until her death on July 26 that year.

Previous court hearings have been told that Piang weighed 39kg when she took up the job with the family in May 2015, but had fallen to just 24kg by the time of her death after being deprived of enough food.

During Gaiyaithiri's sentencing, Justice See Kee Oon in the High Court had said the young woman had been “abused, humiliated, tortured and starved” before her death.

Piang was “completely vulnerable and utterly defenceless”, in what was undoubtedly one of the worst cases of culpable homicide that has come before the courts, he said.

Piang's autopsy found that the maid died from a brain injury following severe blunt trauma to the neck.

On Thursday, DPP Teh said Prema did not want the police to get hold of the incriminating CCTV footage of their abuse of Piang as she knew it could be used as evidence against her.

When Chelvam returned to the house following a call from Gaiyathiri on the day of Piang's death, Prema spoke to him in one of the bedrooms and asked him to dismantle the CCTV recorder from the power source so that it could be disposed of.

Her son-in-law was initially reluctant to do so but at Prema's insistence, he allegedly disconnected the wires and passed the recorder to her.

When the police investigator arrived, he asked Chelvam to produce the CCTV footage but he allegedly lied and said that there was no CCTV recorder as it had been removed "six months ago" and was stored under the bed in Piang's room.

After being asked to retrieve the recorder, Chelvam allegedly pretended to search the house but could not find it.

This all happened in front of Prema who told the investigator that they "did not know" where the recorder was, even though it was in fact in Prema's possession inside the house, DPP Teh said.

Sometime in the afternoon, while the police were still in the house, Prema's daughter-in-law, Isabella, had arrived carrying a handbag which she had left in the master bedroom.

Prema then proceeded to hide the CCTV recorder in Isabella's handbag without her knowledge and then told Isabella in Tamil: "I have kept something in your bag, do something with it."

Isabella left the house with the bag and took a taxi home together with her husband Kishore, who was Prema's son.

Under their block, Isabella relayed to her husband what Prema had told her at the house and handed him the CCTV recorder, which he recognised to be from Gaiyathiri's house.

Kishore then called up his friend Vikneshweri Sabanatan, to help "keep something for him" and also asked that she not ask for any details pertaining to the item.

She agreed and arrived in the evening to pick up the CCTV recorder in a plastic bag to keep it safe for him.

Sometime later that evening, police officers arrived with Chelvam at Isabella and Kishore's home to ask for the CCTV recorder.

He then called Vikneshweri and asked her to return the recorder, which was then handed over to the police officers.

The prosecution is seeking at least three years' jail for Prema as she had been the instigator of the removal of the CCTV recorder which had 35 days' worth of footage crucial to establishing all of the maid abuse charges that were brought against her.

For intentionally concealing the CCTV recorder, Prema could be jailed for up to 10 years and fined.

CORRECTION: An earlier version of this article stated that the Deputy Public Prosecutor for the case was Mr Shaun Lim. This is incorrect. It should be Mr Sean Teh. We are sorry for the error.