Indian-Origin Jail Warden Fined Rs 83 Lakh For Taking Bribe From Singapore Prisoner

In Singapore, a senior prison warden of Indian origin was found guilty of seeking bribes totalling SGD 133,000 (Rs 83,02,930) in return for relocating an inmate from his assigned prison cluster.

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What happened?

Kobi Krishna Ayavoo, aged 56, was additionally convicted for inciting his colleagues to access the prison system to review the inmate's information, as reported by Channel News Asia. He will return to court for sentencing in January.

Kobi had contested 10 charges, mostly of seeking bribes from the inmate named Chong Keng Chye, but was convicted of all of them.

The prosecution had argued that Kobi sought bribes from Chong between September 2015 and March 2016. These were for reasons including paying for car loan instalments, house renovations, a birthday celebration and credit card bills.

Where and when?

The incident happened in Singapore on Monday.

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Why did he take bribe?

In 2005, Chong received a 20-year preventive detention sentence for abusing his girlfriend's seven-year-old son, which led to the minor boy's death.

He was housed in Changi Prison's A1 cluster, a maximum-security prison for offenders with lengthy sentences. Chong testified that Kobi had promised to help him get a transfer out of A1 in return for lending or giving Kobi the cash.

Kobi said he had a friend who was an intelligence officer who could help Chong. Kobi got the friend to see Chong, but the latter was still not transferred after a medical review in early 2016.

He rejected Kobi when the prison officer asked him to get his friends or family to pass him money and complained that he had not been transferred.

How did the prisoner get the warden suspended?

Chong had written down details in a magazine in his cell whenever Kobi asked him for money. When he received a new magazine, he would copy over his records before discarding the old one.

In June 2016, before going to stay at Changi Medical Centre, Chong copied over his latest version of records from paper he tore from a novel in his cell. The document included a bank and phone numbers provided to him by Kobi.

Chong explained that he decided to report Kobi using this document as he was afraid Kobi would "find trouble" for him after he returned to jail following a surgery he was to undergo and failed to hand over the money Kobi had asked for.

A fellow inmate also testified about how Chong had told him about giving money to a prison employee in exchange for help. After Kobi was charged with seeking bribes from Chong, his employment with the Singapore Prison Service was suspended. He no longer had access to the prison's system, which contained information about the inmates.

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Who did Kobi try to fool, and how?

Kobi had been suspended since July 2017 and had been receiving about half his pay - SGD2,000 a month. This continued until December 2022, when he reached retirement, according to the Channel report.

She said an innocent man would want to expedite proceedings so his name can be cleared quickly, but Kobi instead delayed court proceedings. For example, he chose to undergo a non-emergency surgery days before trial was set to start in September 2018. He was admitted to hospital for a fracture before the new trial dates in January 2019 and went for a COVID-19 swab test the day before trial dates in September 2020.

He then reported sick at the entrance of the State Courts in February 2021 and went to a private clinic, where he received a swab test that later turned out negative.

He was admitted to hospital in April 2021 over complaints of fainting and again went for another swab test, claiming he had been coughing and sneezing in September 2021.