Sengkang MP Raeesah Khan Admits to Lying About Police Misconduct on Rape Victim

By
Tan Shi Hui
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Sengkang MP Raeesah Khan has been making headlines time and time again from the comments she made online before she became MP, to the recent case where she alleged that the police mishandled the case of a sexual assault victim.

That case has since been going back and forth but today, it looks like some light is shed on that case.

Sengkang MP Raeesah Khan Admits to Lying About Police Misconduct on Rape Victim

Today (1 Nov), MP Raeesah Khan admitted to not accompanying a rape victim to the police station despite claiming that she did. She added that her previous statement on the matter was “untrue”.

She said that the anecdote was shared by the survivor in a women’s support group that she was part of. She said she left out the fact that she was in the women’s support group for she did not have the courage to admit that she was part of it.

She followed up with a revelation that she was traumatised by an incident that happened to her when she was 18 years old – she was sexually assaulted while studying abroad. This incident still traumatises her today, and that was why she was in the group.

She apologised to the sexual assault victim in the case for bringing the case up without her consent.

She also acknowledged that she had disregarded the principles around consent and discussions concerning survivors of sexual assault.

Her voice broke while apologising.

Additionally, she also apologised for alleging that the police mishandled that case.

For that, Leader of the House Indranee Rajah an official complaint against Ms Raeesah for breaching her Parliamentary privilege. She also asked for the matter to be referred to the Committee of Privileges, which looks into any complaint alleging breaches of parliamentary privilege. Speaker of Parliament Tan Chuan-Jin agreed, which means Ms Raeesah will be investigated for this matter.

Pritam Singh, the Leader of the Opposition and Workers’ Party Secretary-General, said in a statement that Ms Raeesah has “wanted to set the record straight in Parliament”, and that “this was the correct thing to do.”

What Happened?

In case you’ve been living under a rock, this whole ordeal started on 3 Aug during a Worker’s Party’s motion on empowering women.

Ms Raeesah claimed that she had accompanied a 25-year-old rape survivor three years ago to make a police report, but that the woman came out of the police station crying.

She said the police officer had had allegedly made comments about her dressing, and the fact that she was drinking.

However, there’s a slight problem – that case doesn’t seem to exist. The police have checked their records and have not found any case which fits Ms Raeesah’s description.

Therefore, Law and Home Affairs Minister K. Shanmugam pressed her for more details. Some of which includes the police station she had accompanied the victim to, the rough date of the incident and more.

However, Ms Raeesah refused to give more information, citing the need for confidentiality.

Mr Shanmugam then dropped the issue in parliament. However, he added that the police officers in charge will interview her instead.

Then she ghosted the police. It is one thing to ghost that stalker you went on a date with but to ghost the police is another thing.

Despite the police trying to reach out to her via email twice, Ms Raeesah decided to ignore the emails.

This eventually brought us to today where some light is finally shed on this case.

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Featured Image: YouTube (CNA)

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Tan Shi Hui
Email: [email protected]