A deceased man who stands accused for the fatal stabbing of his wife in Tampines had both of his charges formally removed on Feb. 16 by a district court, CNA reported.

Under the Criminal Procedure Code, the court must order the abatement of every charge or criminal proceeding against an accused on his death.

According to court documents seen by Mothership, the two charges pertain to his harassment of his wife in Apr. 2020, who had taken out a personal protection order (PPO).

Both suspect and alleged victim passed away

On Feb. 10, the suspect was found lying motionless at about 9:10am at the foot of his flat at Block 205A Punggol Field.

The discovery of the suspect's body came in the wake of an earlier incident at 6.30am, in which a 42-year-old woman, injured with slash wounds to the neck, was found lying motionless at the void deck of Block 206 Tampines Street 21.

Both of them subsequently passed away.

Knew each other

The police said in their statement that the alleged attacker was known to the woman.

They married in June 2000, but the marriage eventually soured, with the woman moving out of her home and applying for a PPO against the man on Mar. 6, 2020.

The Straits Times reported that he allegedly breached the PPO on April 15, 2020 and was charged with two counts of harassment.

He had used violence on the woman, and continually harassed her in Tampines.

However, he was released on bail for S$10,000 and had been scheduled to return to court on Feb. 17.

Accused's lawyer spoke with him two days prior to incident

CNA further quoted the accused's lawyer, Anil Singh, who expressed his shock at the incident, given that he had spoken with his client two days prior to the incident.

Separately, a 37-year-old man was arrested for sharing classified info related to the incident via WhatsApp.

He had allegedly taken a photograph of the LOM and shared it via WhatsApp with his 60-year-old male friend, who was not authorised to receive the classified information.

The LOM was then further disseminated by the 60-year-old man to other unauthorised recipients, resulting in the wider circulation of the information.

Police investigations are ongoing.

Top left image from Facebook, right image Mothership file photo