MUMBAI: Former Channel News Asia presenter Vidya Shankar Aiyar lost a sexual harassment case in Singapore yesterday.
District judge Victor Yeo sentenced him to 16 months' jail and four strokes of the cane for outraging the modesty of a 30 year woman.
Aiyar is appealing against both the conviction and the sentence and is currently out after coughing up Singapore $40,000 as bail, say media reports from Singapore.
The incident took place in November 2002, after a party, where Aiyar met the woman. The report indicate that he outraged the modesty of the women at his apartment in the suburb of Lorong Chuan.
Aiyar a bachelor, who used to present a programme In Conversation, was charged in May last year and tried in September and November. Apparently he had even tried to call off the entire issue by offering to compensate the woman if she would withdraw her charges, say the reports.
The judge had already convicted Shankar last week calling him a 'hunting wolf in sheep's clothing.'
According to media reports, Yeo said he was guided by two precedents while passing the sentence and his judgement. The first involved a case of a student who molested another who was sharing an umbrella with him and the other which involved a man who stroked his victim in a crowded place. Each of the offender was caned and jailed for nine months and their appeals against conviction dismissed.
All pointers are that even Aiyar's case is unlikely to find any recourse.