SINGAPORE: A man who met a recruiter at a shopping mall later initiated sexual conversations with the woman and dragged her into a nursing room where he molested her.
Ankit Sharma was sentenced to four years’ jail and six strokes of the cane on Monday (Sep 22) for one charge of aggravated outrage of modesty.
The 46-year-old Indian national and Singapore permanent resident had contested the charge, claiming the victim had come on to him instead but was upset because he said her mouth smelled.
The incident had occurred on the night of Mar 1, 2023 at a nursing room beside a washroom near a bar at Changi City Point.
The victim, then aged 31, was a technology specialist recruiter at a company not named in court papers due to the gag order on her identity.
A colleague had shared Ankit’s profile with the victim, and she reached out to him and met him for the first time on the day of the offence.
The meeting began in a professional manner, with discussions about the employment of Ankit and his wife, said Deputy Public Prosecutor Sheldon Lim.
They ordered alcoholic drinks at the bar and moved to more personal topics, with Ankit asking detailed questions about the victim’s relationship status, including “prying questions about the nationalities she had dated before”.
He also asked her why she had chosen an introverted person as her current partner, said Mr Lim.
The victim grew uncomfortable at the intrusive questions and excused herself to use the toilet at about 8.45pm.
While in the toilet, she texted her then-boyfriend asking him to check in with her by 9pm, explaining that the candidate she was interviewing was “a bit drunk and I try to protect myself”.
After returning to the bar, the victim was subjected to increasingly invasive questions from Ankit, who started asking about her sexual history and preferences, said the prosecutor.
VICTIM EXCUSES HERSELF TO CALL FOR HELP
Alarmed, the victim excused herself to use the toilet around 9.20pm, where she called three people. Only one person answered, and the victim asked this person to pick her up as “this guy is talking about sex”.
When her then-boyfriend returned her call, the victim asked him to head over as well.
When the victim stepped out of the toilet, she saw Ankit, who was waiting for her.
He asked her if she was an “impromptu person”. When she replied that she was, Ankit grabbed her, tapped the button to open the door to the nursing room and pulled her inside.
He then closed the door, grabbed her arms and pulled her up, forcefully kissing her.
Ankit forced the victim to sit on a chair and sandwiched her legs between his and continued to kiss her. He then forced her to perform a sex act and tried repeatedly to remove her underwear.
However, the victim cried at him to stop and said twice that she was on her period.
At this, Ankit said: “Okay. Do you want to go to the hotel?”
The victim said “no”.
Ankit then performed a sex act in front of the victim, who took the chance to send text messages since her hands were no longer restrained by him.
Ankit was defended by Mr Johannes Hadi. The defence’s case was that the victim had asked Ankit suddenly if he wanted to go to a hotel and asked if he was “interested in kisses”.
According to the defence, it was the victim who suggested going to the nursing room to kiss.
Ankit purportedly stopped kissing the victim in the nursing room because there was a “really bad smell which was coming out from her mouth”.
He claimed the victim voluntarily performed a sex act on him and tried to kiss him again, but he told her about the smell from her mouth.
At this, the victim pushed Ankit away and used an expletive, the defence claimed. After this, Ankit left the nursing room and the victim followed him.
The court found him guilty at the close of trial. The prosecution sought at least four years’ jail and at least six strokes of the cane, saying the degree of sexual exploitation was “extremely high”.
Mr Lim said the sexual intrusion was “intense” and “prolonged” and it was fortuitous that the sexual assault did not escalate further, given his repeated attempts to remove her underwear.
“The victim understandably experienced a significant degree of distress from being molested in such a forceful manner in the course of her work,” said Mr Lim.
At trial, she testified that she experienced a great deal of anxiety and was not emotionally stable, and that being sexually assaulted by a client had given her “trust issues” and affected her work.
Ankit’s lawyer, Mr Hadi, asked for three to three-and-a-half years’ jail instead, with three to five strokes of the cane.
He compared the case with a previous case called GII and said his client’s case did not involve the aggravating factor of breach of trust in a familial context.
The GII case also involved a prolonged duration of molestation in multiple areas, which was not present in Ankit’s case, said Mr Hadi, adding that his client should therefore get a lower sentence than GII, who received 50 months’ jail and six strokes.
For aggravated molestation with wrongful restraint, the man could have been jailed for between two and 10 years and caned.
