A former Singapore Police Force clerk pleaded guilty on Tuesday (Jun 7) to five charges under the Official Secrets Act (OSA) for divulging privileged information to an unlikely accomplice – an employee of a law firm.
Khatijah A Manap, 61, also pleaded guilty to three counts under the Prevention of Corruption Act (PCA) for receiving at least S$2,500 in bribes from legal executive Gulzar Raja Singh Sandhu, 69, in exchange for contact details of people involved in traffic accidents.
Another 23 charges – 18 under the OSA and five under the PCA – will be taken into consideration during sentencing.
The duo met in 2008, when Khatijah was herself involved in a traffic accident. She was put in touch with Raja by a relative, and he in turn introduced her to his daughter, a lawyer at Clifford Law LLP. Khatijah told Raja then that she was working as a clerk in the investigation branch of the Traffic Police.
As a clerk, Khatijah had access to traffic accident investigation papers, including the personal and contact details of those involved.
When the two bumped into each other again more than two years later at the Traffic Police headquarters, Raja asked Khatijah if she wanted to work together by giving him the contact details of traffic accident victims.
Raja offered to pay her S$200 for every successful “contact” – traffic accident victims who engaged the law firm to act for them in compensation claims. Khatijah agreed, and eventually pocketed at least S$2,500 from the scheme, Deputy Public Prosecutor Sanjiv Vaswani told the court.
She would randomly pick “victims”, copying their details down on a piece of rough paper which she would destroy after communicating these to Raja, the court heard.
Either Khatijah or Raja would then contact the victim to inform them they could lodge a compensation claim, and engage Raja’s daughter, a lawyer at the firm, to do so. In some cases, Raja told victims he had obtained their contact details from a police officer, or an employee of the Traffic Police.
Their offences came to light in 2013, after a traffic accident victim – who was contacted by the pair twice in two years regarding separate accidents – complained to Khatijah’s boss.
In 2012, Mr Haresh Vishindas Chandiramani was involved in a traffic accident and was contacted by Khatijah, using the alias “Azizah”. Azizah informed Mr Chandiramani he could seek compensation, and arranged for Raja to visit the man at his home.
At Mr Chandiramani’s home later that day, Raja admitted he had an arrangement to obtain contact details of accident victims from “someone at Traffic Police for a fee”, the court heard. Mr Chandiramani told Raja to leave.
About a year later, in 2013, Mr Chandiramani was involved in another accident. He again received a call from Azizah, claiming to be an employee of Clifford Law LLP. She advised Mr Chandiramani to engage the firm – specifically, Raja’s daughter – if he wanted to seek compensation.
Azizah then offered to set up a meeting with her paralegal, Raja, but was cut off by Mr Chandiramani over the phone. He immediately called Khatijah’s office, and asked why she had disclosed his number to “an outsider”. She explained that she and Azizah were, in fact, the same person.
Mr Chandiramani warned Khatijah that what she was doing was against the law, and complained to her boss, who advised him to lodge a police report.
For breaching the Official Secrets Act, Khatijah could be sentenced to up to two years’ jail and a fine of up to S$2,000. For receiving bribes, she could be jailed for up to five years and/or fined up to S$100,000.
Investigations against Raja are ongoing.
Source: ChannelNewsAsia
