Singapore, Oct 17 (PTI) A former Indian chief priest at one of Singapore’s oldest Hindu temples has failed in his bid for a lighter jail term for pawning the temple’s gold jewellery for more than SGD 2.3 million.
Kandasamy Senapathi, 39, was sentenced to six years in jail by a district judge in May after he pleaded guilty to two charges of criminal breach of trust (CBT) and two charges of removing the benefits of his criminal activities from jurisdiction. Six similar charges were taken into consideration during his sentencing.
The Indian national was employed by the Hindu Endowments Board as a priest at the Sri Mariamman Temple in the central business district here from December 2013 until he resigned on March 30, 2020.
He would pawn a piece of jewellery that adorned statues of deities at the temple for cash and then return on another day to redeem the first piece of jewellery using a second piece of jewellery, according to The Straits Times newspaper.
On Tuesday, his lawyer, Divanan Narkunan, argued before the High Court that the sentence imposed was manifestly excessive, the report said.
Divanan argued that the district judge had erred by focusing on the misappropriated sum stated in the charges without considering that the money obtained by Senapathi was merely a fraction of the total pawn proceeds.
The lawyer argued that although Senapathi received a total of SGD 2.3 million (USD 1.6 million), he had obtained only SGD 141,054.90 as benefits, as most of the pawn proceeds were used to redeem the jewellery and pay off the interest owed to the pawnshops.
Disagreeing with the lawyer, Justice Vincent Hoong pointed out that when Senapathi pawned the jewellery pieces, he received the proceeds, as reflected in the charges. The amount represented the value of the items misappropriated.
“How the appellant chose to use the pawn proceeds subsequently is irrelevant to determining the sum misappropriated in each of the CBT charges,” the report quoted the judge as saying.
Noting that sums owed to the pawn shops resulted from Senapathi’s unlawful acts, the judge said, “This is simply a disingenuous argument.” Between 2016 and 2020, Senapathi pawned 66 distinct pieces of jewellery at various pawn shops on 172 occasions. He was caught when the COVID-19 pandemic struck in 2020, throwing the regular audit timing off and revealing the missing jewellery.
All the pieces of jewellery he pawned have since been returned to the temple. However, the sum of SGD 141,054.90, which was remitted, still needs to be recovered. PTI GS GRS AKJ GRS GRS
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