A 28-year-old Singaporean native who still fulfills his mandatory National Service (NS) obligations in India even after his permit expires, was sentenced here to 14 weeks in prison after appealing his conviction and sentence. The High Court panel on Wednesday rejected Naresh Kumar Nagesvaran’s claim that he did not know he needed an export permit to stay in India for school as his late mother had been processing all letters from the Centre for the Enlistment Centre (CMPB) until the second half of 2018.
The panel includes Chief Justice Sundaresh Menon, Justice Tay Yong Kwang and Vincent Hoong urged the lower court to decide to sentence Nagesvaran to jail for 14 weeks. Nagesvaran, born in Singapore, left India with his mother and sister in 2004 when he was seven years old. According to the Straits Times, the court was told that his Singaporean father abandoned the family.
In 2009, when he was 13 years old, he informed him of his last famous address in Singapore to inform him of his NS responsibility. It noted that if he intends to stay abroad for more than three months, he must apply for a valid exit permit. Nagesvaran then obtained an export license for two consecutive periods, which allowed him to stay outside Singapore.
From January 30, 2010 to January 28, 2012, the first valid online application. The second export license was applied for on January 3, 2012 at the counter of CMPB in Singapore. The license is valid from January 29, 2012 to September 30, 2013. He returned to Singapore on April 7, 2019, five and a half years later than he allowed and was arrested at the airport.
He started national service later that year. He was then charged with failing to return to Singapore during the period specified in the second exit permit. Nagesvaran argued that no one told him that he had an NS obligation in Singapore when he was 13, or that he had to obtain a valid export license to stay in India.
He claimed he was only aware of his NS obligations at the end of 2018. However, the prosecutors provided evidence that Nagesvaran accompanied his uncle to the Central Human Resources Base (CMPB) on January 3, 2012 to apply for a second withdrawal permit.
His travel records show that he coincided with the application date in Singapore from 25 December 2011 to 10 January 2012. Nagesvaran insisted that he had been staying outside the CMPB house when his uncle went to the counter. He also tried to distance himself from a letter sent to CMPB on February 18, 2014.
The letter was signed in his name and asked for an extension of his exit permit. He denied signing the letter and suggested that his name be written in his mother’s handwriting. His mother died in June 2019 after a prolonged battle with cancer.
Magistrate Luke Tan ruled in his 2023 conviction that crime is essentially a strict responsibility. Strict liability crime is a crime that a person is convicted, as long as the prosecution can prove that the bill is committed, regardless of the person’s intention or knowledge.
This means the prosecutor does not need to show that he knows he must return to Singapore before the exit permit expires. In any case, the District Court judge found out that Nagesvaran knew of his NS obligation when he accompanied his uncle to CMPB and that he had signed the letter to CMPB.
Chief Justice Menon pointed out that the defense has the responsibility to present expert evidence in support of its claim that the letter dated February 18, 2014 was signed by others. He added that the defense also did not call Nagwaran’s uncle to prove the CMPB visit.
In response to the questions, a spokesman for the Ministry of Defense said 29 offenders, including Nagesvaran, have been sentenced to jail since the High Court ruled the sentencing framework for NS offenders in 2017.
