Bala Kuppusamy

Bala Kuppusamy (born 14 February 1961), a Singaporean citizen, was a convicted robber and serial rapist who had committed various offences of rape, robbery and molestation from 1985 to 2008.

Bala Kuppusamy was born on 14 February 1961 and raised in Singapore.

He had one sister in his family.

Bala was single with no children in his adulthood.

His first offence of raping and robbing a 19-year-old woman in 1985 led to him being sentenced to 11 years' jail and 28 strokes of the cane, and his second conviction for sexually assaulting two students and four robberies led to him sentenced to 23 years' jail and 24 strokes of the cane.

On 25 November 1985, Bala Kuppusamy had his first run-in with the law when he raped a woman at a factory in Kallang.

Bala, who was working as a dog catcher, first approached a 19-year-old production operator of the factory on that night, claiming that her boyfriend was engaged to a girl he knew, and asked her to call her boyfriend to come to that factory.

However, the woman's boyfriend did not show up, and afterwards, Bala brought the 19-year-old girl into the men's toilet, where he slapped her (resulting in a mouth injury) and raped her.

Bala was arrested and the victim identified him through an identification parade on 9 January 1986.

Aside from this, Bala had committed robbery and theft prior to his arrest.

The preliminary hearing of Bala's case took place in July 1986 before it was transferred to the High Court for trial hearing.

On 2 November 1987, after Bala pleaded guilty to one count of aggravated rape, Judicial Commissioner Chan Sek Keong sentenced 26-year-old Bala to nine years' imprisonment and 12 strokes of the cane.

Just 18 days later, Bala was found guilty of robbery with hurt and two theft charges in a separate court hearing, and he had two more years added to his sentence, plus another 16 strokes of the cane, which amounted to 11 years' imprisonment and 28 strokes of the cane.

Although the legal maximum number of cane strokes allowed is 24, it was not restricted for an offender in Singapore to receive more than 24 cane strokes in two or more separate trials for whichever offences punishable by caning.

After completing two-thirds of his sentence (equivalent to seven years and four months) with good behaviour, Bala was released on parole on 8 September 1992.

45 days after he was released, Bala Kuppusamy re-offended and attacked four women at or near Marymount Flyover within the last week of October 1992.

He assaulted and robbed these four women, and out of these four women, two had been sexually assaulted by Bala.

The first robbery took place on 23 October 1992, when he robbed a 13-year-old girl and molested her; the second and third robberies took place on the same night of 27 October, when Bala robbed two women within 15 minutes at two different locations, getting away with a loot of S$40 and jewellery worth S$1,815.

On the night of 30 October, Bala approached a 20-year-old student, demanding her to hand over her valuables.

Even after the fourth victim gave him S$100, Bala dragged her to the bushes, assaulting her before he raped and sodomized the girl, from whom he took another S$10.

Two days after his fourth crime, Bala was arrested on 1 November 1992 for these seven offences against the four victims, and he was identified by the 20-year-old student through a police identification parade.

The crime also raised residents' concern about the security around the secluded roads of Braddell during night time, and many hoped that the safety of the residents, especially their female family members, could be better protected by reducing the incidences of crimes at the area itself.

The authorities also stated that residents should be more vigilant as a part to help prevent crime from happening.

On 16 July 1993, the trial judge, Justice Punch Coomaraswamy of the High Court, sentenced 32-year-old Bala to 18 years' imprisonment and 12 strokes of the cane for aggravated rape, five years (consecutive) for sodomy and another six years (concurrent) with 12 strokes of the cane for robbery with hurt, which amounted to a total of 23 years in jail with 24 strokes of the cane.

Before sentencing, Justice Coomaraswamy admonished the accused for not learning his lesson from his first stint in prison, which ended for just seven weeks before Bala commit these second string of offences against four innocent females, and he added that Bala deserved no sympathy.

However, it was after his release in 2008 from his second prison stint, when Bala gained notoreity for committing his third and latest crime spree to date.

Merely 41 days after regaining his freedom, Bala attacked seven women and robbed them, and he even raped four of them.

After completing two-thirds of his sentence (equivalent to 15 years and four months) with good behaviour, Bala was released on parole on 17 March 2008.

41 days after his release from his second prison sentence, Bala Kuppusamy once again committed sexual assault and robbery and other offences.

This spate of offences lasted from 27 April 2008 to 10 June 2008, and was his most severe crime spree to date.

In total, seven victims aged between 16 and 34 were targeted by Bala, who committed these offences during night time at secluded areas all over Singapore.

On the night of 27 April 2008, at Bukit Timah, a 34-year-old Myanmar maid was stalked by Bala.

Although she noticed him and tried to escape, Bala caught and assaulted her before stealing S$400 from the woman.

He then escaped to his workplace, a fast food restaurant in Raffles City (where Bala worked as a cleaner), to report for work as usual.

On the night of 30 April 2008, a 20-year-old polytechnic student, who came from China, was walking along Bartley Road on her way to give tuition to a student living in that area.

Bala targeted her by ambushing her from behind, and forced her to hand over S$200 and her phone.

The second victim refused to follow Bala into the nearby woods, so he assaulted the woman before he fled, reporting for work as per usual.

On the night of 28 May 2008, along Upper Serangoon Road, a 18-year-old secondary school student, who was a China-born Singapore permanent resident, was heading to Woodleigh MRT station when she was approached by Bala, who pretend to ask her for directions.

Afterwards, he threatened the girl to hand over her phone and money, and assaulted her.

Bala was arrested that same year and in light of his high risk of re-offending and previous criminal records, Bala, then 48 years old, was sentenced to 42 years in prison and 24 strokes of the cane in March 2009, which was the longest term of incarceration ever imposed for a sex crime.