Neighbour tells court about Resham Singh and Madam Amutha
I saw
him getting intimate with her
NOVENA CHURCH 'EXORCISM' SUIT
JUST like a brother?
By Crystal Chan
18 November 2007
JUST like a brother?
Then how come a neighbour saw you drinking gin with Madam Amutha
Valli, who was in revealing clothes, at a coffee shop?
That was what Mr Resham Singh had to respond to in court
yesterday.
A former neighbour of hers has come forward to say that MrSingh was
intimate with her and that he began staying with her as early as
2000.
But Mr Singh continued to insist that he was her 'sworn
brother'.
Madam Amutha, 51, an ex-tutor, is suing the Novena Church, two of
its priests and six church members over what she claims was a
forced exorcism on 10Aug2004.
Lawyer Denis Tan said the neighbour, Mr Ting Meng Chang, stated
that he saw MadamAmutha and MrSingh drinking and behaving
intimately around 2002.
Mr Tan is acting for three of the church members, and he mentioned
this incident while cross-examining MrSingh yesterday about his
relationship with MadamAmutha.
Mr Ting, a businessman, had volunteered to be a defence witness
after reading about the case in the newspapers.
He lived opposite MadamAmutha's flat from 1986 to 2002, when he
moved to Sembawang.
Mr Ting stated in his affidavit that every evening, MrSingh and
MadamAmutha drank gin at the neighbourhood coffee shop, and they
would go on till 1am.
Mr Ting said in his sworn statement that on one such session,
MadamAmutha was wearing a nightdress so translucent that it was
obvious she was not wearing any upper underwear.
Mr Tan said: 'She didn't attempt to cover herself up with the
jacket that she carried.
'To all purposes, you had an intimate relationship with the
plaintiff and that's why she was dressed in such a manner.'
Mr Tan said: 'Mike (MrTing) even joined you for some drinking
sessions at the plaintiff's and your invitation.'
As on the previous days, MrSingh had a ready answer for every
question.
He said this could not be true as he did not know about that coffee
shop till last year.
He added: 'I drink red wine - I don't take hard liquor.'
Mr Ting deduced that MrSingh had in fact begun living with
MadamAmutha in 2000.
He noted in his affidavit that in that period, MrSingh frequently
went in and out of her Ang Mo Kio flat.
This contradicts MrSingh's claim that he began staying there only
early this year.
Besides, according to their passports, both MrSingh and MadamAmutha
were in Australia from 1 to 10 Apr 2003.
But Mr Singh claimed they were not together. He said: 'I went there
for a seminar. At the same time, she wanted to gather her kids for
a trip. I merely helped her to book the trip.'
Unconvinced, MrTan suggested to MrSingh that Madam Amutha's
daughter, MissSubashini Jeyabal, 22, called her a slut and a
prostitute because she let MrSingh sleep at her place.
Mr Singh said: 'Subashini has already testified and she has given
her explanation.'
Miss Subashini stated that she said those words in a heated
argument over her dropping out of Catholic Junior College.
SON EXPELLED
It also emerged yesterday that MadamAmutha's son, MrJairaj Kumar
Jeyabal, 28, was asked to leave the National University of
Singapore while he was a third-year engineering student.
Miss Subashini testified earlier that her brother, a trainee
teacher, had dropped out of the course.
But under cross-examination by MrPPadman, the church's lawyer,
MrJairaj Kumar said: 'Civil engineering wasn't appealing to me but
I didn't make the effort to quit.
'I just simply didn't turn up for exams and NUS sent me a letter of
disqualification.'
The episode apparently troubled MadamAmutha so much that in 2003,
she became depressed and was treated by doctors at Flame Tree
Medical Centre on Thomson Road.
She was also unhappy that her son drank and smoked.
To that, Mr Jairaj Kumar said: 'She wasn't happy about me smoking -
no parent would be. And she wasn't happy that I used to go out with
friends and have drinks with them.'
He also denied his mother is an alcoholic. 'If she was drinking
half a bottle of gin every day, she would be dead by now,' he
said.
'To my knowledge, she only had a sleeping disorder. She only became
depressed and horrible after the exorcism. I can't comment on her
medical history because you're showing me this for the first
time.'
EXCHANGE OF THE DAY
YESTERDAY'S hearing was punctuated by sharp exchanges between the
church's lawyer, Mr P Padman and Mr Jairaj Kumar Jeyabal, Madam
Amutha Valli's son.
Mr Padman: Do you know that your mother told doctors that she had a
platonic relationship with your father because of his drinking
habit and character flaws?
Mr Jairaj Kumar: It's impossible. If that's the case, how could I
have been born? How could my sister have been born?
