Indian in Singapore jailed for bribing compatriot to underreport weight of bags with gold

A 37-year-old Indian was on Monday sentenced to eight weeks of jail in Singapore for bribing a compatriot worker at the Changi Airport to underreport the weight of passenger bags with gold in it for sale in India, being the fourth such case this year, according to a media report.

Gopal Krishna Raju, a manager in a food processing company, gave bribe of at least SGD 800 (USD 581) to Patel Hiteshkumar Chandubhai, who worked as a customer service associate for logistics service provider UBTS at the airport, between January and October 2016 to under-report the weight of baggage with his gold in it, the Straits Times reported.

Patel's responsibilities at the work place included assisting passengers at boarding gates and check-in counters for Tigerair flights.

Patel's offence came to light after Singapore Airport Terminals Services conducted a internal investigations following a report published in the NewPaper on July 13 last year, claiming that a baggage-touting syndicate was operating at Changi Airport.

Later, Patel was ordered a jail term of eight weeks and fined SGD 800 in April this year for accepting the bribe.

During the sentencing of Raju, District Judge John Ng noted that the offence had taken place over 10 months and stressed that it is important to protect Changi Airport's reputation.

Raju pleaded guilty last Friday to the corruption charges.

He was the fourth person to be dealt with in the court this year over bribes given to customer service associates at the airport.

Raju was, however, the first offender who had given the bribes.

The three customer service associates had unlawfully accepted them.

Besides Patel, the two others are Singaporean of Indian origin Gerizim Kirubai Raj Deved, 35, and Indian national Ayyadurai Karunanithi, 47.

Gerizim is a former Sats Asia-Pacific Star employee, while Patel and Ayyadurai both worked for logistics service provider UBTS.

They were each sentenced in April to between seven and nine weeks' jail, and also ordered to pay between SGD 500 and SGD 800 in penalties.

The cases involving Gerizim and Ayyadurai were not linked to Raju's matter.

Deputy Public Prosecutor David Koh said that Raju would look for passengers - either his friends or strangers - travelling to Chennai and asked them if they would carry gold to pass to his relatives there, who would then give them a sum of money.

Defence lawyer Nirmal Singh had earlier pleaded for his client to be given a high fine.

"The amount involved was a paltry sum of SGD 800. The under-reporting did not exceed more than 2 kgs on any one occasion and the customer service associate had the discretion to waive the excess luggage weight," Singh said.

Offenders convicted of corruption in Singapore can be jailed for up to five years and fined up to SGD 100,000, the paper reported.