ICA officer who obtained sex acts as bribes from six foreign men jailed

An Immigration and Checkpoints Authority (ICA) inspector who obtained bribes in the form of sex acts from six men was sentenced to a year and 10 months' jail on Sept 11.

Kannan Morice Rajagopal Jayaram, 55, committed the offences in exchange for helping them with their short-term visit pass applications so they could remain in Singapore.

The Singaporean, who committed the offences between 2022 and 2023, pleaded guilty in July to three corruption charges, each involving an Indian national.

The three men were between 25 and 30 years old at the time.

Another three similar charges involving three other men were considered during his sentencing.

Kannan has been suspended from service since April 2023.

In a statement on July 29, ICA said: "Following the officer's conviction in court, we will begin disciplinary proceedings against him."

In earlier proceedings, the prosecution said that Kannan became a team leader at ICA's Visit Pass Unit in 2018. He became an inspector at the agency three years later.

As a team leader, he was responsible for overseeing a team of around 10 ICA officers.

One of the men he targeted was a 26-year-old Indian national, referred to as V3 in court documents.

V3 had arrived in Singapore in March 2022 as he wanted to study hospitality management here.

On Nov 16 that year, he went to the ICA headquarters and Kannan attended to him.

The pair exchanged contact details and Kannan later contacted him via WhatsApp, asking to meet up. However, V3 declined to do so as he was in school at the time.

He received an e-mail from ICA on Dec 24, 2022, informing him that his short-term visit pass extension application had been rejected.

As his pass was expiring in two days, he panicked and called Kannan to ask for his help with the extension.

Kannan then told V3 to bring his immigration documents and meet him at the void deck of a Housing Board block of flats near Kallang MRT station that day. V3 did as he was told and followed Kannan home.

While there, Kannan instructed V3 to submit a pass extension application via the ICA website. After that, Kannan submitted V3's passport number to his subordinate.

He also instructed the subordinate to approve V3's application and grant the younger man a pass for two weeks.

The officer did as she was told, and V3 received on the same day an official e-mail from ICA informing him that his application had been approved.

Deputy public prosecutors Bryan Wong and Benjamin Low stated in court documents: "He thanked the accused for his help... Thereafter, the accused requested that V3 kiss him, to which V3 declined as he was not sexually attracted to the accused.

"The accused persisted in his demands for sexual acts from V3, to which the latter eventually acceded as he was grateful to the accused for his help."

The two men then went to Kannan's bedroom, and the older man performed sexual acts on V3.

The court heard that Kannan also committed similar offences involving five other foreign men.

Court documents did not state how his offences came to light, but he was charged in court in 2023.

Kannan's bail was set at $30,000 on Sept 11, and he is expected to begin serving his sentence on Sept 18.