A 28-year-old man was sentenced to two years in prison and six strokes of the cane by a Singapore court on Tuesday after pleading guilty to one count of putting a person in fear of bodily harm in order to commit extortion.
Shortly after midnight on March 29 last year, Aravind Naidu, 19, was waiting for his girlfriend, Chan Shu Ling, also 19, outside a public toilet near Block 433, Ang Mo Kio Avenue 10, The Straits Times reported.
Kumaresan Raman, the defendant, approached Naidu and claimed that he knew what Naidu and his girlfriend had done in the toilet. Posing as an off-duty police officer, Raman refused to elaborate and demanded to check Naidu’s identity card.
Raman repeated his claim to Chan when she emerged from the toilet and checked her identity card as well. He threatened to arrest the couple unless they offered him money or valuables or allowed him to have sex with Chan.
The couple offered to give him S$80 (US$57.7) to resolve the matter. As they walked to a nearby ATM, Naidu called the police under the pretense of calling his mother. When Raman looked away, the couple took their opportunity to flee.
In sentencing, District Judge Kenneth Yap criticized Raman for having not learned his lesson given his three previous convictions for theft and another conviction for posing as a public servant for cheating.