An Indian-origin student has been jailed for 10 months in Singapore for having sex with a minor girl.
25-year-old Hari Kumar Anpalagan has been convicted of one count of hiring a sex worker under the age of 18 after he had sex with a girl who informed her she was 16, the Strait Times reported.
Hari met the girl after spotting her messages online and agreed to pay her $70 for her services. Both of them met in May last year and Hari left without paying her after a neighbour spotted them.
“You have not shown a shred of remorse for the girl... You added salt to the wound by not paying her,” District Judge Kenneth Yap chided him on Tuesday before pronouncing the guilty verdict.
The court heard the girl informed him she was under the age of eighteen. But that did not deter him from engaging in a sexual relationship with her.
Hari was arrested after the girl’s school informed the police and officers found text messages between the girl and Hari on her phone.
During the three-day trial, Hari denied having sex with the girl and told the court he had met the girl out of the “goodness of his heart” and claimed he gave $70 to help her buy a new phone.
Hari asked the court to defer his sentence to a later date, saying that he had to complete an internship. He will be back in court on January 5.
According to the media report, two other men were prosecuted and a third was referred to the Serious Sexual Crime Branch of the Singapore Police Force for investigations for having sex with the girl.
