Singapore court rejects Indian national's appeal in molestation case; sent to jail

Singapore, October 16

A 40-year-old Indian national, who was found guilty of molesting a stewardess on board a flight, was sent to jail for four months on Friday after his appeal against the conviction was rejected by a court here.

Vijayan Mathan Gopal was found guilty in August last year on three counts of outraging the 22-year-old stewardess’ modesty while on board a Scoot flight from Cochin to Singapore on November 2, 2017.

He was jailed for four months for the crime in September last year. Gopal had filed an appeal against the conviction.

While dismissing the appeal, Justice Aedit Abdullah on Friday said that he was satisfied that the appeal should be dismissed, “despite the best efforts” of Gopal’s lawyers.

The judge said he found that the evidence relied on by the prosecution proved beyond reasonable doubt that Gopal committed the offences, according to a report by Channel News Asia.

The judge added that he did not see anything that supported Gopal’s claims that the victim and her colleague had fabricated the allegations after he complained about poor service on the flight. PTI