This case involves the smuggling of illegal workers from Johor Town, Malaysia into Singapore in four separate ventures in March and April 1999. Four smugglers were involved in this venture including the organiser, Mr Sivakumar s/o Ramachandran, and the driver, Mr Sarvan. He was called one hour prior to each venture and he would then meet the bus and passengers in Johor Town and driver across to Singapore. The number of smuggled migrants brought in Singapore by this group is not known. The organiser was later charge and convicted for his role. His appeal against his sentence and conviction was dismissed.
The main accused promised MYR 500 to the driver per trip. The fees paid by the smuggled migrants have not been reported.
MalaysiaSingaporeIn this trial Mr Sivakumar s/o Ramachandran was found guilty of four counts of engaging in business or trade of conveying prohibited immigrants under s 57(1)(c) of the Immigration Act (Singapore, cap 133, 1997 rev ed).
MR Ramachandran was sentenced to 2 years, 6 months' imprisonment and three strokes of the cane on each of the four counts, with two sentences to run consecutively.
Magistrates Court
The accused sought to appeal against his conviction and sentence but the appeal was dismissed.
Information about the personal details and criminal proceedings, if any, against the other two persons involved was not available at the time of writing.
The accused was the main organiser in this case and called the driver when a smuggling venture was ready to be launched.
Mr Sarvan was the driver of the bus in all four smuggling ventures. Further information about him and any criminal proceedings against him was not available at the time of writing.
Magistrates Court
Sivakumar s/o Ramachandran MA 248/99
This entry was copied from The Migrant Smuggling Case Database, launched by the University of Queensland Migrant Smuggling Working Group in August 2013.
