Singapore—A lawyer has been charged for giving false testimony designed to help an individual get to the next phase of the country’s bar examinations in 2016.
According to The New Paper (TNP), this is the first time that such a thing has happened in Singapore.
Last week Sarbrinder Singh, a 49-year-old lawyer, was charged with falsely stating that a law graduate had actually finished six months of supervised training in a letter that he wrote. The letter was written as part of the process of enrolling the graduate in the Singapore Institute of Legal Education’s (SILE) Part B course of the Singapore Bar Examinations 2016.
Mr Singh reported to have abetted by conspiring with Shree Manish Kalra to cheat SILE. On June 9, 2016, Mr Kalra reportedly submitted a letter to SILE stating that he had undergone the necessary supervised training between Oct 11, 2015, and April 11, 2016, at Kertar Law, where Mr Singh worked. The letter was supposed to have been signed by Mr Singh.
However, the lawyer’s purported abetment did not lead to Mr Kalra getting admitted to the course.
Mr Kalra, age 26, also faces one charge of abetment because of his allegedly conspiring with the lawyer to cheat SILE. Mr Kalra, whose hearing has been scheduled for October 11, is on S$10,000 bail.
Mr Singh has also been faced with a separate criminal charge in another case. He reportedly threatened to spread the explicit videos and photos of a female foreigner, thus injuring her reputation.
The said female foreigner was reported to have worked for him as a paralegal, although she had no valid work pass. She is allegedly a Malaysian national.
Under the Employment of Foreign Manpower Act, the lawyer is alleged to have employed the female foreigner as a paralegal or administration official without a valid work pass between January 2016 and March 2016.
The pass the woman possessed was a special pass, which is only given for special purposes, like helping with an investigation or a court case, or for stateless persons who stay in the country.
Mr Singh is accused of criminal intimidation towards the woman on March 30, 2016.
In yet another charge, the lawyer has been accused of allegedly submitting a forged email document to the police on February 16, 2017. The charge sheet indicates that the document was a discharge summary, purportedly from Himagiri Hospitals, in relation to one Sarbrinder Singh, a patient at the said private health institution in Hyderabad, India.
Mr Singh is now on S$40,000 bail and his hearing will resume on October 11. -/TISG