Murder of Jaswant Singh

On 4 May 1988, a taxi driver was attacked by his four passengers at a secluded area near Old Toh Tuck Road, where the attackers asked him to drive to after hailing his taxi earlier at 2am. The taxi driver, Jaswant Singh, was stabbed and mortally wounded on his neck and he also had his wallet (containing about S$60 in cash), watch and ring stolen by the four robbers, whom he described as male and were all young men. Ten minutes after the assailants fled the scene, Jaswant managed to stagger out of his taxi and seek help from the driver of a passing truck despite his injuries, and he was rushed to National University Hospital.[1]

Despite receiving medical treatment, Jaswant slipped into a coma and his condition never improved.[2][3] Jaswant eventually died on 12 May 1988, eight days after the brutal robbery.[4] Jaswant was 48 years old at the time he died, and he left behind a wife and three children (two sons and one daughter). Jaswant's 21-year-old younger son, Amerjeet Singh (the youngest of three children), stated that his father had no enemies and thus he believed the motive was robbery and he stated it was senseless that a brutal thing had befallen on his father.[5]

Jaswant was not the only taxi driver who became a victim of either murder or disappearance during that year of 1988 itself; another case happened in July 1988 while a third occurred in September 1988, and one went missing since May 1988. At least three cases of murder involving the deaths of taxi drivers had happened that year in total.[6][7]

The police conducted their investigations in the case of Jaswant's murder, and publicly appealed for witnesses who last saw the taxi in the area before the murder, but there were no results and no suspects were arrested despite efforts to crack the case.[8][9] Five months later, Singaporean crime show Crimewatch re-enacted the case in November 1988 and police also released a second public appeal through the episode, calling for witnesses to come forward with any information that could lead to the arrest of the suspects behind Jaswant's death.[10]

On 3 June 1989, 18-year-old Amuthan Murugasu, who was unemployed, became the first person arrested for allegedly killing Jaswant Singh, nearly a year after the taxi driver was killed. Amuthan, who was reportedly one of the four youths involved in the killing, was charged with murder two days later.[11][12][13]

On 3 July 1989, a 18-year-old jobless teenager surrendered himself to the authorities and admitted his involvement in the killing. The boy, whose name was Narayanasamy Jairam, became the second person to face a murder charge in relation to the case. The police were also investigating to identify the remaining two assailants responsible for the murder.[14][15]

On 28 January 1990, a third suspect, identified as 20-year-old Murgan Ramasamy, was apprehended and charged in court for the murder of Jaswant.[16][17]

On 3 February 1990, an unemployed man named Ganesan Suppiah became the fourth and final suspect to be charged with murdering Jaswant Singh back in 1988. Ganesan was 20 at the time of the crime.[18][19]

Under the laws of Singapore, if they were found guilty of murder, the four suspects - Amuthan, Narayanasamy, Murgan and Ganesan - would be sentenced to death, because the death penalty was mandatory for murder and judges in Singapore had no discretion (up until 2013) to sentence murder offenders to any other punishment aside from death.

After the conclusion of his trial, Murgan filed an appeal against his conviction and sentence, but on 26 January 1994, the Court of Appeal dismissed Murgan's appeal and upheld his death sentence and murder conviction.[29] In the aftermath, Murgan petitioned for clemency in a final bid to commute his death sentence to life in prison, but then President of Singapore Ong Teng Cheong rejected Murgan's clemency plea and finalized his death sentence.[30]

On 16 September 1994, 24-year-old Murgan Ramasamy was hanged at Changi Prison.[31]

• Capital punishment in Singapore