Police officer charged with forging statements during investigation of criminal cases

SINGAPORE: A police officer was charged on Wednesday (May 21) with forging police statements and documents related to cases he had investigated between 2021 and 2023.

S Vikneshvaran Subramaniam, 35, was handed nine charges of forgery.

These relate to five criminal cases which were ongoing and two concluded cases which did not result in prosecution, the Singapore Police Force (SPF) said in a media release on Wednesday.

"It was discovered that Vikneshvaran had allegedly forged nine documents comprising seven police statements and two acknowledgement slips across seven cases," SPF said.

According to the charge sheets, in the five ongoing criminal cases at the time, Vikneshvaran allegedly forged the signatures of individuals he interviewed to give the impression that he recorded their statements in person and had them signed.

The other two cases involved forging the signatures of two people who had their EZ-Link card and NRIC returned to them, charge sheets stated.

REMEDIAL ACTION

SPF said remedial actions were subsequently taken, which included assigning new investigation officers to properly record the necessary statements.

"AGC (Attorney-General's Chambers) reassessed these cases after the remedial investigations were conducted and determined that there was no miscarriage of justice," SPF said.

According to the police, the alleged forgery came to light after Vikneshvaran was placed on "enhanced supervision" in October 2022 due to his work performance.

A supervisory check of his work was conducted in January 2023, and irregularities relating to case exhibits and document management were detected. SPF said it then immediately conducted a thorough review of all the cases investigated by Vikneshvaran.

Other than the seven cases, no other wrongdoings were uncovered, said the police.

Vikneshvaran has been suspended from duty.

He has indicated that he will plead guilty, and the case was adjourned for the parties to make representations. He will return to court on Jun 18.

The police said that to ensure that the investigation process is fair and robust, SPF has a system of regular audits of cases, and supervisors are immediately alerted when any lapses are detected. 

"Supervisors also pay closer attention to officers who show signs of underperformance," SPF said.

"If any irregularity is discovered, internal investigations are swiftly conducted, and documents relating to all the cases which the errant officers were investigating will be reviewed."

SPF said its officers are expected to uphold the law and maintain the highest standards of conduct and integrity. 

"The SPF deals with officers who break the law severely, including charging them in court," it added.