Team lead of ICA's Visit Pass Unit sought sexual acts from men to help them with

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Team lead of ICA's Visit Pass Unit sought sexual acts from men to help them with applications



Kannan Morice Rajagopal Jayaram at the State Courts on Dec 14, 2023. (File photo: CNA TODAY/Nuria Ling)

SINGAPORE: An Immigration and Checkpoints Authority (ICA) officer who oversaw a team in the agency's Visit Pass Unit, which grants passes to foreigners, obtained sexual favours from six men in exchange for helping them get passes.

Kannan Morice Rajagopal Jayaram, 55, pleaded guilty on Monday (Jul 28) to three charges of corruptly obtaining gratification in the form of sexual acts in exchange for helping the bribers with short-term visit pass applications.

Another three similar charges involving three other men will be considered in sentencing, which was adjourned to August.

Kannan, who has been suspended from duty, was an inspector with ICA at the time of the offences between 2022 and 2023.

The court heard that he first joined ICA in 1996 and was promoted in November 2018 to become a team leader of the Visit Pass Unit.

He was promoted to the rank of inspector in June 2021.

As a team leader in the unit, he was responsible for overseeing a team of 10 to 11 ICA officers, who reported to him.

The officers were tasked with processing any applications submitted by foreigners seeking to extend their stays in Singapore, such as applications to extend their short-term visit passes. The unit also handled cases involving overstayers in the country and cases involving the loss of travel documents.

There were prevailing guidelines governing short-term visit pass extensions, but Kannan's subordinates had the discretion to grant or reject such extensions if there was enough justification to do so.

They would usually consult Kannan, as he was their team leader, whenever they encountered difficulties with such extension applications.

Kannan had the discretion to approve any short-term visit pass extension applications that were handled by his team.

Occasionally, Kannan would man the walk-in counter at ICA's headquarters and personally attend to any such applicants wanting to renew their short-term visit passes.

Kannan knew that it was not right for him to contact foreign short-term visit pass applicants and initiate sexual meet-ups with them, but he did so anyway.

Court documents described how he had such encounters with three men.

One of them, an Indian national then aged 26, was in Singapore to study hospitality management.

He had received only in-principle approval for his student pass application at the point of entry into Singapore in March 2022, so he was given a short-term visit pass so he could continue to stay legally in Singapore while he waited to get his student pass.

He had to repeatedly apply for extensions of his short-term visit pass at ICA's headquarters.

He first got to know Kannan in October 2022 when he went to the headquarters for such an application.

When he went back again in November 2022, Kannan attended to him personally, and they exchanged contact details.

After the foreigner completed his application, Kannan contacted him on WhatsApp, asking to meet up.

The foreigner initially declined as he was in school, but later called Kannan for help when his application was rejected.

Kannan instructed the foreigner to bring his immigration documents and meet him at the void deck of a block of housing flats near Kallang MRT station on Dec 24, 2022.

They went to a nearby supermarket where Kannan bought beer and took the foreigner back to his home, where they drank it.

At Kannan's home, he instructed the foreigner to submit a short-term visit pass extension application on the ICA website.

Kannah then called his subordinate who was at ICA's headquarters and instructed her to approve the application, granting a short-term visit pass for two weeks.

He said he had granted the foreigner the "wrong number of days" for an earlier extension application.

The officer followed Kannan's instructions, even though the foreigner's previous application had already been rejected.

When the foreigner realised his application had been approved, he thanked Kannan and continued drinking beer with him.

After this, Kannan asked for a kiss. The foreigner declined as he was not sexually attracted to Kannan.

Kannan persisted, and the foreigner eventually acceded as he was "grateful to the accused for his help in granting" the application, said Deputy Public Prosecutors Bryan Wong and Benjamin Low.

He was also afraid that Kannan would cancel the pass if he was rejected.

They went to Kannan's bedroom, where Kannan performed sex acts on the foreigner.

The foreigner later admitted that he would not have allowed Kannan to carry out those acts if he had not been an ICA officer with the capability to extend the pass.

Kannan admitted that he knew the foreigner was not likely to reject his advances due to his status as an ICA officer.

ICA previously said in a statement that it had received information on Kannan's acts and immediately reported him to the relevant authorities for further investigation.

Kannan's case was adjourned to August for mitigation and sentencing.

CNA has contacted ICA for an update on Kannan's status, now that he has been convicted.

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