SINGAPORE — After drinking six glasses of beer with his friend, a visiting monk from Nepal heeded the call of a woman selling items in Geylang before groping her over her top.

For molesting the 28-year-old, Tamang Dawa, 42, was sentenced to five months’ jail on Tuesday (Sept 24) after he pleaded guilty to the charge. The woman cannot be named to protect her identity. 

Dawa has been in remand since the incident took place in the wee hours of July 12. He had entered Singapore about a week earlier, in order to renew his visa to travel to Taiwan for worship purposes. His lawyers said that he often comes here to read scriptures at Buddhist temples.  

Clad in a white prison shirt, the monk cried softly in the dock as the charge was read to him in Nepali. “It’s my mistake and I understand the consequences,” he said through an interpreter.

The court heard that at about 11.30pm on July 12, the victim was selling something at a makeshift table in front of the New Cathay Hotel along Geylang Road. 

When she saw Dawa walk past, she signalled to him to go towards her. She then began showing him something on the table. Court documents did not state what the woman was showing him or what items she had been selling.

As she bent over while talking, Dawa groped her breast over her clothing with his left hand.

She immediately swiped his hand away and shouted to an unidentified man sitting a short distance away. This also attracted the attention of a passer-by.

The two men chased Dawa, who had walked away by then, and eventually caught him. Dawa apologised to the victim and offered to compensate her but she refused to accept it.

At this point, two police officers came across the commotion and arrested Dawa.

The monk said that he had drank beer with his friend at a nearby coffee shop before the incident.

His lawyers, Mr Josephus Tan and Mr Cory Wong from Invictus Law Corporation, told the court in mitigation that his crime was “wholly out of character” and that “he sincerely regrets his actions which took place near the temple that he was then residing at”.

“He has since rebuked himself for bringing disgrace to his Nepalese master monk and to all that he stands for and reads,” they added, asking for five months’ jail and no caning.

District Judge Jasvender Kaur agreed with the defence’s submissions, saying she had considered the “brief nature of the intrusion” and Dawa’s early plea of guilt.

For using criminal force to molest his victim, he could have been jailed up to two years, or fined, or caned, or any combination of the three.