Former Singapore prison officer of Indian origin gets 3 years in jail in bribery case

An Indian-origin former Singapore prison officer has been sentenced to more than three years in prison for demanding a bribe of SG$133,000 to transfer a prisoner out of prison.

Retired senior chief warder Kobi Krishna Ayyavu, 57, was found guilty of eight charges under the Prevention of Corruption Act, The Straits Times newspaper reports.

Additionally, he was convicted in July 2017 of inciting his colleagues to access the prison system to view prisoner information, resulting in his suspension.

Deputy Public Prosecutor Magdalene Huang revealed that Kobi had tried to extort bribes from an inmate, Chong Keng Chai, on eight separate occasions between September 2015 and March 2016. The prisoner wanted to be transferred from a section called Cluster A1 in Changi Prison.

The prosecutor said: “There was no way (Chong) could have known about the accused’s financial problems or obtained the mobile phone and bank account numbers unless the accused told him; And the accused had no other reason for giving him the information except that he wanted a bribe.

Chong, who had been serving a 20-year preventive detention sentence since 2005 for abusing his girlfriend’s seven-year-old son, wanted a transfer out of a group at Changi Prison.

Although Kobi attempted to secure between SG$3,000 and SG$42,000 from Chong, he never received any money.

It was revealed in court that Chong recognized his lack of authority to assist Kobi and therefore did not comply with bribe requests.

Coby denied the allegations, saying that he did not request money from Chong during any of the eight incidents. He reported that he had only talked to Chong during yard time when other prisoners were nearby.