A senior police officer groped two servicemen whom he was supervising during their National Service (NS) more than 17 years ago.

He groped the first victim in a police conference room and the second twice while in a police car.

Ravi Shankar Singh, now 60, retired from the police force with the rank of superintendent in 2016 after a 32-year-long career.

He was arrested in a carpark at Tekka Market in December 2020.

Police also found 170 obscene films on his devices.

His victims, now 38 and 42 respectively, cannot be named due to a gag order from the court.

Told first victim he was "attracted" to him

Court documents indicated that Singh made advances towards the first victim sometime in 2003.

At that point, he was the chief investigation officer at the investigation branch of the Ang Mo Kio police division headquarters.

The victim was serving his NS as an administrative clerk under Singh, who was the approving officer for his leave.

He respected Singh as he had seen him stand up for other police NSFs working under him.

Singh had also offered to support the victim if he chose to sign-on as a police regular.

One day, the victim was tasked to collect investigation papers from the conference room after a morning panel.

As he sat in the room alone, Singh entered and closed the door.

Going over to the victim, Singh massaged his shoulders from behind while saying he was attracted to him.

Singh then kissed the top of his head and touched his groin area without consent.

Shocked and helpless, the victim did not know how to react and soon left the room.

He decided not to report the matter as Singh was his supervisor who approved his leave, so he feared that a report might jeopardise the completion of his NS.

Asked for second victim to be assigned to his team

In 2004, Singh spent a one-month stint at the operations department at the police headquarters.

After that, he was transferred to the Security and Inspectorate Regulatory Department (SIRD), where he was head of compliance management from September 2004 to April 2012.

There, he targeted a second victim sometime between 2005 and 2006.

As one of the department's ranking officers, Singh asked the victim's direct supervisor if he could be attached to his team to help with an audit of auxiliary police officers.

After the victim was instructed to help Singh, he left with Singh in a police saloon car.

Groped him twice in saloon car

While Singh was driving, he placed his left hand over the victim's trousers and groped him.

When the victim said he wasn't comfortable, Singh initially withdrew his hand but did so again after stopping the car.

This time, the victim said "no" and asked him to stop.

Court documents indicated that the NSF felt "embarrassed, ashamed and humiliated as he was physically strong yet felt that he allowed the accused to touch him in that manner".

Despite being angry and outraged by the incident, the victim chose to keep quiet due to Singh's position of authority.

Arrest

On Dec. 13, 2020, police were informed of Singh's offences against a police NSF.

It was not revealed if the report was made by a whistleblower or the victims.

Eight days later, Singh was arrested at a carpark in Tekka Market and escorted back to Police Cantonment Complex for investigations.

Police seized his mobile phone and two laptops and found 170 obscene films on them.

Jail & fine

Singh pleaded guilty on Jun. 10 to two criminal force charges and one charge of contravening the Films Act.

Four other charges were taken into consideration.

He was sentenced to 24 days in jail for the criminal force charges and fined S$20,000 for the Films Act charge on Jun. 12.

Top image from Canva