32-year-old Indian jailed for molesting woman in Singapore

A 32-year-old Indian has been jailed for three weeks for molesting a woman three times on separate occasions while travelling in a bus here last year.

Seetharaman Ramesh, who works here as a department store operations executive, pleaded guilty to one count of molesting the 39-year-old victim while on board a bus on July 25 last year.

Two other molestation charges were taken into consideration during the sentencing, The Straits Times reported today.

The court heard the victim boarded the bus and sat on the second last seat by the window. Seetharaman boarded the same bus about 20 minutes later. But he continued changing his seat during the journey, moving closer to the victim before sitting behind her from where he molested her, the report said.

She turned around and stared at him and later lodged a police report.

District Judge Jasvender Kaur noted that this was not an isolated act and agreed with the prosecution that a message has to be sent so that opportunistic molesters do not take advantage of women using public transport.

Seetharaman's lawyer Mohamed Baiross said his client is likely to lose his employment and be repatriated.

"The very purpose he came to Singapore has been defeated.

He is in a lot of debt," said the lawyer. Seetharaman could have been jailed up to two years, fined, caned or received any combined punishment.