Cleared of murder, but charged with disposing of body

Cleared of murder, but charged with disposing of body

SINGAPORE - An Indian national originally accused of murdering a beautician whose decapitated body was found floating in the Whampoa River was given a discharge not amounting to an acquittal yesterday.

However, the prosecution tendered two fresh charges against forklift driver Gursharan Singh, 26, for causing evidence of a murder offence to disappear and failing to report the offence to a police officer.

He was granted a discharge for causing the death of 33-year-old Jasvinder Kaur, an Indian national, at a Balestier Road house between Dec 10 and 12, 2013.

Gursharan Singh is accused in the first charge of causing evidence of the murder to disappear with the intention of screening Madam Kaur's husband Harvinder Singh, 35, from legal punishment by disposing of the body at or around the Whampoa River near Block 110, McNair Road.

He allegedly failed to report the crime to the police between Dec 11 and Dec 18 that year, despite having reason to believe that the murder offence had been committed.

Harvinder Singh, then a logistics executive, is at large and on Interpol's wanted list.

Madam Kaur's body was found in a rubbish bag floating in the waterway between McNair Road and St George's Road. Her head and hands were missing, and her arms had apparently been mutilated. She came to Singapore from India in September that year on a dependant's pass. Her husband arrived earlier in February.

Bail of $50,000 was offered to Gursharan. The case will be mentioned on March 20.


This article was first published on Febraury 28, 2015.
Get a copy of The Straits Times or go to straitstimes.com for more stories.

This website is best viewed using the latest versions of web browsers.