Worker said to have threatened maid several times before their deaths
SINGAPORE — An Indian construction worker who suspected that his alleged girlfriend was seeing another man had threatened her on previous occasions before they were both found dead in a Geylang hotel in February, the Coroner’s Court heard yesterday (Aug 3).
Two handwritten notes found in 30-year-old Chinnasamy Baskar’s sling bag, stated that he wanted to know which man 28-year-old Ruli Widyawati was communicating with, and threatened to cut her finger off “one by one”.
And on two occasions in August and December last year, Mr Baskar’s employer had received text messages from Ms Ruli, an Indonesian domestic worker, asking him to speak to Mr Baskar about his threatening behaviour. In particular, she asked the employer to not let him go to Indonesia on Chinese New Year as Mr Baskar had threatened to kill her and her whole family.
His dormitory mate also said that Mr Baskar had told him that if he found out that Ms Ruli was cheating on him, he would kill her.
Mr Baskar and Ms Ruli were found dead in Hotel 81 Palace along Lorong 16 Geylang on Feb 1. According to the court documents, Ms Ruli was found covered in blood, with a towel placed over her body and the cause of death was believed to be an incised wound to the neck. Mr Baskar was found hanging above a toilet bowl.
Investigating Officer Aliden Hamad told the court today that the police’s assessment concluded that Mr Baskar had inflicted the injuries found on Ms Ruli before killing himself.
The court heard that the pair was seen at the hotel’s reception at about 9.50am that day. While registering their names, the receptionist noticed that Mr Baskar was “speaking very harshly” to Ms Ruli.
A cleaner at the hotel, who was cleaning the area outside an adjacent room at about 11.30am, said she heard a woman talking and crying at the same time, and suspected she was quarrelling with a man.
According to CCTV footage, Mr Baskar left the room at about 3.32pm and started pacing up and down. He emerged from the room again at 3.41pm to talk to a cleaner in the hotel and no one was seen exiting the room until 7.34pm, when the hotel manager visited the room to ask if the guests wanted an extension and found the bloody scene.
The toxicology report also found that Mr Baskar had consumed alcohol prior to his death while the police found three empty Kingfisher beer cans at the scene.
In the assessment of the causes of death in the investigation report, the pathologist noted that Ms Ruli’s injuries were inflicted by another person, and the possibility that the kitchen knife found on the scene had caused the injuries could not be ruled out. Mr Baskar’s dormitory mate had also identified the knife, noting that he had seen Mr Baskar using it in the dormitory previously.
The injuries found on Mr Baskar, however, could be self-inflicted, said the pathologist.
The assessment also found out that while Mr Baskar’s supervisor and colleague found him to be a “generally hardworking person with little personal issues”, the writings found in his bag showed that he was “unhappy and harboured thoughts of killing” Ms Ruli.
State Coroner Marvin Bay requested that the time Mr Baskar had consumed the alcohol be ascertained, and for more information to be extracted from Ms Ruli’s mobile phone. The case is adjourned for further mention on August 20.
