Investigating Officer’s Lapses Include Not Verifying Claims Properly: Minister Shanmugam
In 2016, Indonesian domestic helper Parti Liyani was accused of stealing from her employer and was sentenced to jail.
However, in Sep 2020, she was eventually acquitted of all charges. The tables were then turned to focus on her employer, as well as the police officers who handled her case.
Almost 1.5 years after her acquittal, it’s been revealed that 2 police officers had neglected their duties while investigating Ms Parti.
They have since been fined, said Minister for Home Affairs and Law K Shanmugam.
Investigations against police officers handling Parti Liyani case completed
At the time, Ms Parti’s case caused such an uproar in Singapore that Minister Shanmugam made a ministerial statement, where he said the police could’ve done better.
He added that an internal investigation was ongoing.
We now have an update, as Minister Shanmugam addressed the case in Parliament on Monday (14 Feb).
In an oral reply to a question from an MP, he said the internal investigations had been completed by the Internal Affairs Office (IAO) of the Singapore Police Force (SPF).
They were conducted against the Investigation Officer (IO) and his supervisor, who handled Ms Parti’s case.
Officers neglected their duties
The conclusion was that both the IO and his supervisor had neglected their duties, Minister Shanmugam said.
He defined this as,
Neglect of duty means the failure to take proper action to perform a required task.
3 lapses listed out
While the IO handled the police report as a routine theft case, “there were some lapses” in how he and his supervisor conducted the investigation.
The minister listed out 3 of the lapses in Parliament:
- The IO should’ve visited the alleged scene of crime promptly to investigate and gather evidence for the case. The lapse partly caused a “break in the chain of custody” for some exhibits.
- The IO didn’t verify some of the claims made by the parties properly.
- The supervisor didn’t provide sufficient guidance to the IO, which partly caused the lapses.
Both officers fined
For neglect of duty, both officers were fined, Minister Shanmugam said.
He described their financial penalties as being “in the medium range”, and the Public Service Commission had agreed on the amount.
At maximum, they were liable for a fine amounting to a 2-year forfeit of salary increments.
The minister explained that they could’ve been given a reprimand or even demotion and dismissal.
The punishment is decided depending on the degree of culpability and harm caused by their actions.
IO was under intense pressure
While much public attention was focused on the conduct of the police officers on this case, Minister Shanmugam noted that they “were doing their jobs under difficult circumstances”.
The IO was working under intense pressure, he said, juggling many ongoing cases and conducting arrests as well.
Despite the stress, the officers had discharged their duties dutifully up till now. He added that even though they’ve “fallen short of expectations”,
I have sympathy for the situation they find themselves in.
Thus, the minister called for an increase in police headcount to relieve the workload challenges—a difficult issue to solve, he admitted.
Helper also bore heavy penalty
As for Ms Parti, she returned to Indonesia in Jan 2021, after not seeing her family for 4 years since her arrest in 2016.
For these 4 years, she’d been living in a shelter, fighting to clear her name and unable to work.
She also faced fear and uncertainty after initially being sentenced to 26 months in prison.
Thus, it can be argued that the former helper has also borne a heavy penalty due to this case, despite being innocent of the crimes she was accused of committing.
Pointedly, even her application for compensation was dismissed.
A case where nobody benefits
Ultimately, Ms Parti’s case seems to be one from which nobody benefited.
While the officers have been punished for their lapses, nothing can make up for the 4 years she lost.
For some form of closure, we may have to wait for the result of the case of Karl Liew, son of her ex-employer, who was charged way back in Nov 2020 over alleged offences in her case.
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Featured image by MS News and adapted from Parti Liyani on Facebook.
