SINGAPORE – After his then wife dragged their Myanmar maid to the kitchen toilet and poured water all over her body, police staff sergeant Kevin Chelvam entered the kitchen.

He glanced at the toilet where Gaiyathiri Murugayan and her mother, Prema S. Naraynasamy, towered over the maid, Ms Piang Ngaih Don.

But Chelvam simply folded his arms and did nothing.

A month after this 2016 incident, Ms Piang Ngaih Don, 24, would die at the hands of Gaiyathiri, 43, and Prema, 64, after a vicious assault.

This scene from closed-circuit television (CCTV) camera footage was played in court on Nov 29, the 10th day of Chelvam’s trial in the fatal maid abuse case.

Chelvam, 45, who has been suspended from the police force, was the registered employer of Ms Piang Ngaih Don.

The maid died on July 26, 2016, in his Bishan flat, following prolonged abuse while under his employment.

He is being tried for four charges, including one charge of voluntarily causing hurt and another charge of abetment of voluntarily causing grievous hurt to Ms Piang Ngaih Don by starvation.

The other two charges are of giving false information to a police officer and removing CCTV cameras – which recorded the abuse – from his home.

Part of the CCTV footage was played in court on Nov 29 at District Judge Teoh Ai Lin’s request. Taken from late June to July 2016, it gave a harrowing glimpse of Ms Piang Ngaih Don’s ordeal in the last month of her life.

Gaiyathiri and Prema are seen repeatedly kicking, slapping and assaulting the emaciated maid as she did her work. The maid takes the blows without retaliation. When she falls, she struggles to get up on her stick-thin limbs.

Though her body seemed to be weakening, the footage captured her continuing with housework till as late as 11pm.

She also had to change her clothes with the toilet door open while Gaiyathiri watched her. In some instances, Chelvam walked past the toilet without batting an eyelid.

Deputy Public Prosecutor Stephanie Koh said previously in her opening address: “(Chelvam) was complicit in Gaiyathiri’s and Prema’s offences by his conscious indifference to the deceased’s plight, which he allowed to continue unabated until her death.”

Other than witnessing these moments, Chelvam had also participated in the abuse, the prosecutors said.

CCTV footage of June 24, 2016, shows Prema kicking and slapping Ms Piang Ngaih Don, as the maid slowly eats from a plate while seated on the kitchen floor.

Chelvam, who is seen washing dishes, does not stop his mother-in-law. Neither does Gaiyathiri, who comes to the kitchen carrying her son in her arms.

Then, Chelvam snatches the maid’s plate away and pulls her up by the hair, lifting her entire body off the ground.

The maid weighed 39kg when she worked for the family and was a mere 24kg when she died.

Her meals often consisted of sliced bread soaked in water, cold food straight from the refrigerator, or some rice at night.

Doctors who testified in Chelvam’s trial said Ms Piang Ngaih Don’s limbs looked like they were just skin wrapping bone, and she had a body mass index similar to someone suffering from advanced cancer or from extensive and widespread tuberculosis.

In the last 12 days of her life, she was tied to the window grille at night while she slept on the floor in the same room as Prema, who slept on the bed.

She died from a brain injury following severe blunt trauma to the neck.

Chelvam, who is represented by lawyer Pratap Kishan, remained expressionless behind a black mask as he watched the footage.

Chelvam and Gaiyathiri divorced in 2020. They have two children, who were aged one and four at the time.

Prema is currently serving 17 years’ jail for her role in the fatal abuse.

Gaiyathiri was sentenced in June 2021 to 30 years in prison – the longest jail term meted out in a maid abuse case in Singapore.

Both of them testified as prosecution witnesses in Chelvam’s trial. Gaiyathiri said her former husband had hurt the maid.

Prema said that Chelvam was not involved in the maid’s abuse. But the prosecution is seeking to impeach Prema as a witness, as her court testimony was inconsistent with what she had initially told the police.

A witness is impeached if it is proven that his or her former statements are inconsistent to evidence given in court. The witness is considered less credible and what he or she says in court will be given less weight by the judge.

The trial continues on Nov 30.