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Bloomberg executive aquitted of molesting maid

This article is more than 12 months old

A senior executive with Bloomberg was acquitted yesterday of molesting his former maid after an 11-day trial.

Indian national Nitin Jaiswal, 44, had claimed trial to using criminal force on his 43-year-old Filipino domestic worker by kissing her on the lips and touching her breast at his Tanjong Rhu Road condominium at about 8am on Feb 18, 2015.

District Judge Salina Ishak said that there were gaps in both the prosecution's and defence's cases. But ultimately, in a criminal case, she said the burden is on the prosecution to prove its case beyond a reasonable doubt.

She said she did not find the alleged victim's evidence to be "unusually convincing" in view of inconsistencies in the testimony. She agreed with the defence that the material aspects of the prosecution's case were contradicted by what the maid had told others.

The court heard that Mr Jaiswal returned to Singapore from Mumbai early on the day in question and was flying off to Melbourne on the same day to join his wife and two children. He took a taxi home.

The maid, who had been working for the family for two years, was alone and served him tea in the living room. She alleged that Mr Jaiswal molested her after she had given him a massage. She told a neighbour about the incident a day after Mr Jaiswal came home with his family on Feb 24 that year.

The maid left the apartment three days later with her passport and work permit while the family was not at home. She lodged a police report on Feb 28, stating that her employer had molested her.

The defence's case was that the maid had made the false allegations because she was motivated by money. She had been given an advance salary of $1,100 before the family left for Australia. The defence asserted that she had planned to extract more money from him with the allegations.

Mr Jaiswal's lawyer Christopher de Souza said that his client and family were fully vindicated.

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