Construction worker jailed 22 years for sex with 12-year-old girl he met on MRT train
A Bangladeshi construction worker was sentenced to 22 years’ jail and 18 strokes of the cane on Friday (April 12), after pleading guilty to three counts of statutory rape of a minor. Das Ratan Chandra, 40, first spotted his victim, who was 12 at the time, on the MRT in Feb 2017.
SINGAPORE — A Bangladeshi construction worker was on Friday (April 12) sentenced to 22 years’ jail and 18 strokes of the cane, after pleading guilty to three counts of statutory rape of a minor.
Das Ratan Chandra, 40, first spotted his victim, who was 12 at the time, on the MRT in February 2017.
She cannot be named to protect her identity.
She was with her grandparents on the train, on her way to attend her stepsister’s birthday celebration in Choa Chu Kang.
When she alighted at the station with her grandparents, Chandra caught her attention and signalled at her.
He then trailed the family, following them for a short distance out of the MRT station. Without the grandparents noticing, Chandra slipped the girl a piece of paper with his phone numbers written on it.
The girl called Chandra later that same day and they began communicating with each other through text messages, WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger.
In one of their conversations, Chandra said he was 25 years old, when he was in fact 38 at that time.
Despite knowing the girl’s age, Chandra engaged her in sexually explicit conversations and sent her nude pictures of himself.
He also asked her to send him similar photos of herself, which she did, despite some initial reluctance.
The court heard that he also pestered the girl to have sex with him.
On March 26 that year, Chandra took the girl to a forested area in Lower Peirce Reservoir Park.
He placed a blue canvas mat on the ground, made the girl perform a sex act on him and proceeded to have sex with her for the first time. She was a virgin at the time. They left the area after 4pm, leaving the canvas mat behind.
The two had sex in Lower Peirce Reservoir Park again on two other occasions the following month.
Chandra’s offences eventually came to light when the girl’s mother chanced upon her behaving suspiciously during a video call with an unknown man, who was later identified as Chandra. While going through the girl’s mobile phone, her mother became worried when she saw the volume of messages that the girl had exchanged with Chandra.
The girl’s mother then informed the girl’s father and stepmother, who found sexually explicit text messages on the girl’s phone.
Chandra was arrested on April 26, 2017, a day after her parents and stepmother lodged a police report.
Chandra’s lawyer, Mr Revi Shanker K Annamalai, asked the judge for 14 to 18 years’ jail for his client, pointing out that Chandra had not “imported any fear” on the girl or used force or violence on her.
However, Deputy Public Prosecutor Winston Man argued that Chandra’s acts had been premeditated as he had sexually groomed and cultivated the girl.
As he passed the sentence, High Court Judge Aedit Abdullah noted that while two months — the period from the day they started communicating to the time they first had sex — was not long, it “did not alter the effect of grooming”.
“Neither was the absence of the use of any force or violence sufficient to outweigh that,” he added.
For each count of statutory rape, Chandra could have received a maximum jail term of 20 years and be liable to a fine or caning.
