Killing of Muawanatul Chasanah

On 1 December 2001, Chasanah was working in the home of Ng's sister. Ng accused the maid of stealing leftover porridge from his young daughter, later stating she was going to use the food to "cast a spell".[4] He punched her in the face, then kicked her in the stomach so hard that it ruptured.[9][10] She vomited and fainted in the kitchen, afflicted by severe stomach pain.[7]

The following day, Ng stepped into the local police station, confessing to severely abusing her and kicking her in the stomach the previous day; he also expressed his fear that she may die. Paramedics were dispatched to Ng's flat, where they pronounced Chasanah dead on the scene.[11] She was found in a vomit-stained T-shirt and had a distended stomach. The autopsy reported that her body was covered in sores from what appeared to be an attack with the back of a hammer. Both her back and her neck were discoloured from an apparent scalding.[8] An autopsy report revealed that the maid had over 200 scars on her body.[12] Her cause of death was determined to be peritonitis that developed when her stomach ruptured.[13]

Following Chasanah's death, the Indonesian government froze new foreign domestic worker contracts for a month in order to review the system.[14][15]

A neighbour of Ng, a man named Mr Neo, commented on Chasanah's abuse and death, stating: "Even if I knew, I wouldn’t have called the police, it’s not my business. He can do what he wants, that’s his problem." In November 2002, this remark caused a group of Singaporeans to form an advocacy group called Transient Workers Count Too (TWC2), hoping to prevent any more acts of abuse against foreign domestic workers.[16]

In addition, Singaporean authorities believe that the publicity surrounding her death has assisted in reducing the number of reported maid abuse cases from 157 in 1997 to 43 in 2002.[14] The case was also re-enacted by Mediacorp's crime show True Files in 2003.[3]

Ng's lawyer Subhas Anandan also wrote about the case in his memoir. He said he was personally feeling repulsed at the extent of abuse suffered by the victim but he had to suppress his disgust to maintain a professional mind while managing his client's case. He also wondered how did Ng, a father who dearly loved his children, would behave in such a barbaric way towards someone else's beloved daughter.[6]

The case was recalled nearly twenty years later when another convicted maid abuser Gaiyathiri Murugayan, who murdered her Burmese maid Piang Ngaih Don in 2016 and also abused her grievously, was sentenced to a much longer imprisonment term of 30 years for culpable homicide and assault on 22 June 2021, which reportedly surpassed that of Ng Hua Chye, who was released at this point of time, as the longest sentence ever meted out to a maid abuser in Singapore. Gaiyathiri, who was initially charged with murder, was also assisted by her 62-year-old mother Prema Naraynasamy, who also faced allegations of murdering and abusing the maid, and her husband Kevin Chelvam, who was accused of maid abuse and removing the evidence of the abuse.[17]