SINGAPORE: Police staff sergeant Kevin Chelvam, 45, stood by as his wife and mother-in-law starved and tortured their Myanmar maid for about nine months.
On Wednesday (Nov 29) in court, the 10th day of Chelvam’s trial in the fatal maid abuse case, CCTV footage was played showing Chelvam glancing at the toilet where Gaiyathiri Murugayan and her mother, Prema S. Naraynasamy, poured water all over their maid’s body. Chelvam simply folded his arms and did nothing.
A month after this 2016 incident, Ms Piang Ngaih Don, 24, would die at the hands of Gaiyathiri, 43, and Prema, 64, after a vicious assault. Chelvam has been suspended from the police force. He is being tried for four charges, including one charge of voluntarily causing hurt and another charge of abetment of voluntarily causing grievous hurt to Ms Piang Ngaih Don by starvation. The other two charges are of giving false information to a police officer and removing CCTV cameras – which recorded the abuse – from his home.
Read related: Policeman’s wife who starved and tortured Myanmar maid to death sentenced to 30 years’ jail
Ms Piang sometimes had to change her clothes with the toilet door open while Gaiyathiri watched her. In some instances, Chelvam walked past the toilet without any reaction.
According to CCTV footage of June 24, 2016, Prema was seen kicking and slapping Ms Piang Ngaih Don as the maid slowly ate from a plate while seated on the kitchen floor. Chelvam, who was seen washing dishes, did not stop his mother-in-law. Neither did Gaiyathiri, who came to the kitchen carrying her son in her arms. Then, Chelvam snatched the maid’s plate away and pulled her up by the hair, lifting her entire body off the ground. The maid weighed 39kg when she worked for the family and was a mere 24kg when she died.
40-year-old Gaiyaithiri Murugayan, who had abused and tortured her 24-year-old Myanmarese domestic helper till death, was sentenced to 30 years in jail in the High Court on June 22. Due to her mental disorders, including major depressive disorder, Gaiyathiri’s murder charge had been reduced to culpable homicide, not amounting to murder.
Justice See Kee Oon, in his sentencing remarks, said that “(Piang) was made to endure agonising physical and psychological harm for a prolonged duration before succumbing to her injuries. The prosecution’s submissions are framed in forcefully emotive terms but words cannot adequately describe the abject cruelty of her appalling conduct”. Justice See also said that he would have had “little hesitation” in imposing life imprisonment if not for Gaiyaithiri’s mental disorders, which were a relevant sentencing consideration.
Read related: Mother of policeman’s wife who starved & tortured maid to death also pleads guilty to assault
The mother of a woman who was jailed in 2021 for the fatal abuse of a domestic worker was sentenced on Jan 9 to 14 years in jail. The court heard how, in 2016, Prema S Naraynasamy, 64, joined her daughter Gaiyathiri Murugayan in abusing their 24-year-old maid Piang Ngaih Don, ultimately leading to the death of the Myanmar national.
The pair had assaulted Piang while she lived with them in their three-bedroom flat along Bishan Street 11. They limited her sleep to just five hours each night and deprived her of food. In the hours before her death on July 26, 2016, Prema choked her by the neck and poured a basin of water on her before her daughter tied the worker to the window grille of a bedroom and continued assaulting her.