A 39-year-old Indian chief priest of Singapore’s oldest Hindu temple was sentenced to six years in jail for pawning over SGD 2 million (USD 1.5 million) of ceremonial jewellery repeatedly from a prominent temple. Kandasamy Senapathi was employed by the Hindu Endowments Board as a priest at Sri Mariamman Temple in the downtown Chinatown district from December 2013 until he resigned on March 30, 2020. He pleaded guilty to two charges of criminal breach of trust by dishonest misappropriation and two charges of transferring criminal proceeds out of the country, Channel News Asia reported. Another six charges were considered in sentencing, it said. Senapathi, an Indian national, was caught when the COVID-19 pandemic struck in 2020, throwing the regular audit timing off and revealing the missing jewellery. In 2014, he was entrusted with the keys and combination number code to the safe in the temple’s holy sanctum, which contained 255 pieces of gold jewellery owned by the temple, with a book value of about SGD 1.1 million. Punjab IG, SSP Masood reject claims of mistreatment of PTI women in jails Senapathi began pawning pieces of the jewellery in 2016, taking them to pawn shops and later redeeming them by using … Continue reading Indian Hindu chief priest sentenced to jail in Singapore