Erakkodan Abinraj, 26, broke into his neighbour’s condominium unit and sexually molested a 36-year-old woman whose name cannot be published under a gag order. An Indian citizen was sentenced to seven months of jail in Singapore on Wednesday after he pleaded guilty to one charge of molestation, with a charge of housebreaking to be considered in sentencing. Erakkodan Abinraj, 26, broke into his neighbour’s condominium unit and assaulted a 36-year-old woman whose name cannot be published because of a gag order.
She was sleeping with her husband in the master room, and in another room, her daughter was resting, when Abinraj, who had accessed the house using the balcony sometime around 4.50 am on 22 September last year, broke into her bedroom and went about touching the undergarments of the victim when he saw she was sleeping.
The victim was awakened when she felt someone was touching her, a Channel News Asia report indicated and stated that she then turned to the accused with him holding up his handphone and having the torchlight on after getting confused seeing her husband sleeping beside her.
The victim screamed and woke up her husband who had confronted Abinraj and requested him to exit the room. The suspect then pissed in fear and begged him not to report to the police, the court heard. The victim called the police and Abinraj remained at the unit until the police arrived, before confessing to trespassing.
He also denied sexually touching the victim and fabricated that his handphone had fallen onto the victim, and that was when she opened her eyes. The prosecution asked for a six to eight-month jail term as a sentence. The prosecution explained it was aggravating that Abinraj had trespassed into the victim’s residence, which is a “private place” where the victim ought to feel safe. She continued that the victim was also helpless since she was sleeping.
She explained that Abinraj had gone further to inconvenience her by wetting her unit. Abinraj’s defence lawyer Ambalavanar Ravidass requested seven months’ imprisonment, stating that his client hails from a poor family in India. He further stated that Abinraj’s grandmother had taken her own life, indicating that his client was mentally deranged at the time of the offence.
