Kobi Krishna Ayavoo, 56, was also found guilty of instigating his colleagues to access the prison system to view the inmate’s information.
The case of a 57-year-old Indian-origin retired prison officer in Singapore has garnered attention after he was sentenced to three years and two weeks of jail term for attempting to obtain a bribe of 133,000 Singaporean dollars from an inmate during his service. Accused, Kobi Krishna Ayavoo, who held the position of senior chief warder, was found guilty under eight charges of the Prevention of Corruption Act in November 2023. Additionally, he was convicted of two charges under the Computer Misuse and Cybersecurity Act for instigating his colleagues to make unauthorized access to the Prisons Operations and Rehabilitation System (Ports) in July 2017.
“He was convicted last November. However, the sentencing was announced on Friday. He tried to obtain a bribe of 133,000 SGD from an inmate. He has been sentenced to a jail term of 3 years and two weeks,” The Straits Times newspaper reported.
Kobi, who was suspended from work from July 2017, retired in December 2022. In the graft-related offences, Kobi had attempted to obtain a bribe from Chong Keng Chye, then 48, who was behind bars at the time for one of the worst child abuse cases in Singapore.
He had battered his girlfriend’s seven-year-old son for more than seven months until the child died in 1999. He also abused the boy’s two sisters.
In 2005, Chong was sentenced to 20 years of preventive detention, with nine strokes of the cane.
In preventive detention, a repeat offender aged over 30 receives a substantial period of imprisonment to protect the public. The detention order can last up to 20 years.
Among other things, Kobi asked for $42,000 in September 2015 to renovate his home, and requested $25,000 for “urgent use” in March 2016. According to the report in The Straits Times, Kobi first asked Chong for money in September 2015, stating that he could help the inmate.
During the trial, Chong testified that he knew Kobi did not have the capability or the authority to help him transfer out of A1.
According to court documents, Chong told the court that the matter needed to go through the prison’s “Intelligence”.
Chong testified that Kobi then told him that one of the Intelligence officers was his friend, who could help the inmate.