Police investigating lawyer M. Ravi for alleged criminal defamation

SINGAPORE - The police have confirmed that they have initiated investigations against lawyer M. Ravi for an offence of criminal defamation.

In a statement on Saturday night (Nov 7), the police said the investigations were in relation to a Facebook post posted by Mr Ravi on Friday.

Mr Ravi alleged in the post that Singaporean lawyer Eugene Thuraisingam had told him that Law and Home Affairs Minister K. Shanmugam had said he “wields influence over the Chief Justice” and “calls the shot and controlls (sic) Sundaresh Menon”.

Mr Menon is Singapore’s Chief Justice.

On Friday, Mr Thuraisingam wrote a letter to Mr Shanmugam, saying that “there is absolutely no truth whatsoever” to Mr Ravi’s allegations. 

Mr Thuraisingam also posted a copy of the letter online on his Facebook page, referring to Mr Ravi’s Facebook post as “false and completely untrue”.

The police added that according to Mr Thuraisingam, Mr Ravi had made similar allegations in a Facebook post published on June 12, 2017.

Mr Thuraisingam had clarified with Mr Shanmugam on June 13, 2017 that Mr Ravi’s allegations were false. 

No police action had been taken then.

Those found guilty of criminal defamation can be jailed for up to two years, fined or both.

Earlier this year, Mr Ravi was embroiled in another case of unsupported attacks against state prosecutors and a senior district judge.

In September, a disciplinary tribunal had determined that he should be ordered to pay a penalty of at least $10,000 for these attacks, which were contained in a media statement published by Mr Ravi and posted online in July last year.

Mr Ravi was also ordered to pay $3,000 in costs to the Law Society which prosecuted the case.

This article was first published in The Straits Times.