An Indian man in Singapore, who gave his neighbour the fright of her life by molesting her in her own bed as she slept — after climbing into her flat through a connecting balcony — has been sentenced to prison for seven months.
On March 5, Erakkodan Abinraj, 26, was sentenced by a Singapore court after he entered a guilty plea for one count of molestation. Another count of housebreaking was also considered while sentencing.
A report by The Straits Times said that Abinraj had climbed into his neighbours’ flat through the connected kitchen balcony and began groping the victim, aged 36, as she slept. The victim’s husband slept right next to her, but that did not deter the perpetrator.
Criminal invades sanctity of home
Quoting Deputy Public Prosecutor (DPP) Kathy Chu, the news website said that the Indian national had been the victim’s next-door neighbour for a year or so. The criminal lived in a flat that he shared with some colleagues, and he had a passing acquaintance with the victim.
He committed his crime on 22 September 2024, just before dawn (around 4.50am). After breaking into his neighbour’s flat through the kitchen balcony, Abinraj used his mobile phone flashlight and walked around the woman’s flat.
Then he entered the main bedroom, where the woman and her husband were asleep. The couple’s daughter was sleeping in another room. Approaching the couple’s bed, Abinraj tried pulling down the woman’s underwear.
ST quoted DPP Chu as saying: “The victim awoke as she felt someone touching her. She turned to her left to look at her husband and saw that he was sleeping. Puzzled, she turned to her right and saw the accused holding up his handphone with the torchlight on.”
The terrified woman screamed; her husband woke up and confronted the molester. Abinraj hurried out of the bedroom, but in his fear, he urinated and begged the couple not to call the police.
But, of course, the couple did call the police, and Abinraj was made to sit in the woman’s flat until officers of the Singapore Police Force arrived.
He admitted to breaking in through the kitchen balcony. However, he lied to the couple about what he did to the woman, claiming that his mobile phone slipped and fell on her, and that woke her up.
DPP Chu told the court, “The offence took place in the victim’s bedroom, in the middle of the night. The accused invaded the sanctity of the home.”
The prosecutor had asked for a prison sentence of six to eight months; the court sentenced Abinraj to seven months. The maximum penalty for molestation is a jail term up to three years, a fine, and caning.
