On 17 May 2004, 39-year-old Chitrabathy Narayanasamy was murdered by her 43-year-old husband G. Krishnasamy Naidu, a taxi driver who was at the time released on bail for an earlier incident of stabbing his wife twice the month before her death. Krishnasamy, who surrendered himself nine hours after the killing, was charged with murdering Chitrabathy.
During his trial, which dragged on for a year since May 2005, Krishnasamy revealed that throughout the past two decades of his marriage with Chitrabathy, his wife had been involved in at least four extramarital affairs with other men, and just earlier in the same year he killed Chitrabathy, Krishnasamy once again suspected that his wife had another affair based on some uncorroborated circumstantial evidence he uncovered, and it manifested into his gradual violent behavior towards his wife and finally led to him murdering Chitrabathy by hacking her with a chopper several times outside her workplace.
It was further revealed that Krishnasamy was suffering from morbid jealousy, a delusional disorder that caused him to behave irrationally based on unfounded suspicions regarding his wife's infidelity and thus impaired his mental faculties at the time of the offence. Although Krishnasamy was sentenced to the mandatory death penalty after the High Court found him guilty of murder, the Court of Appeal unanimously allowed Krishnasamy's appeal and hence reduced his murder conviction to one of manslaughter, and commuted his death sentence to life in prison.
Murder Chopper attack On 17 May 2004, 39-year-old Chitrabathy Narayanasamy, a worker of a Sony factory at Tuas, was hacked to death by her 42-year-old husband G Krishnasamy Naidu, who approached her on the pretext of signing divorce papers, but ambushed her with a chopper and killed her right in front of her colleagues outside her workplace.
The brutal attack itself left Chitrabathy with her head nearly decapitated. Krishnasamy left the scene afterwards. It was revealed that a month before, Krishnasamy was charged with stabbing his wife twice and he was out on bail for ten days at the time he killed his wife, with whom he had two children and another detail revealed Krishnasamy and Chitrabathy were married for twenty years when she was killed.
Indictment Nine hours after the brutal murder, Krishnasamy surrendered himself to the police. It was reported that he had taunted his in-laws through a phone call that he murdered his wife and asked them to bury her, which brought shock to her kin, who all tried their best to protect Chitrabathy for the past ten days for fear of Krishnasamy coming after her while he was out on bail.
Krishnasamy, who celebrated his 43th birthday the day after murdering his wife, was charged with murder a day after his arrest.
Trial of Krishnasamy Prosecution's case
For a single charge of murdering his wife, Krishnasamy stood trial at the High Court on 4 May 2005. The trial judge of the case was Woo Bih Li. Chong Kah Wei and Ng Cheng Thiam were both appointed as the trial prosecutors and Peter Keith Fernando represented Krishnasamy as his defence lawyer. It was the case at trial that Krishnasamy killed Chitrabathy for allegedly having an affair with another man, and that Chitrabathy had a history of being unfaithful to her husband, who threatened to kill her.
Krishnasamy's children, a son and daughter, both came to court as witnesses to testify against their father. They said that during the few months before the murder of their mother, their father had been conducting so-called family meetings on a regular basis, in which he had been violent and keep forcibly interrogating his wife for having an affair with another man, whose name was known to be Ashok. Ashok, whose real name was Asokan Muthu Suppiah, was a security guard from Chitrabathy's workplace and he was acquainted with Chitrabathy (whom he first met in February 2004) and sat on the same company bus with Chitrabathy on the way to work. According to the children, their mother repeatedly denied having an affair and it was on 8 April 2004, things got worse when an enraged Krishnasamy used a knife to stab Chitrabathy twice, which resulted in his arrest for voluntarily causing grievous hurt and subsequent threats to kill Chitrabathy. Krishnasamy's children reportedly expressed their anger and hatred against Krishnasamy for killing their mother and blamed him for their parents' marriage woes. Krishnasamy's daughter also publicly told the judge that she wanted her father to never come out of prison again and told the court how her mother was always taking care of them while their father was not around. Fernando recounted in an interview that his client was saddened to hear what his children had said in court.
Ashok, Chitrabathy's acquaintance who came to court as a witness, testified that he heard from Chitrabathy that Krishnasamy threatened to kill her and she was fearful of her husband, and evidence also showed that Krishnasamy had tried to look for Ashok at his workplace hours before he murdered his wife. Chitrabathy's sister, who helped her to make a police report on Krishnasamy, said that when Krishnasamy called her to tell her he killed her sister, Krishnasamy threatened to murder her next after killing his wife, an allegation which Krishnasamy denied.
Krishnasamy's account Krishnasamy went to the stand to give his evidence. It was on the stand where he gave a lengthy account about his marriage with Chitrabathy, her past affairs and his eventual plot to kill Chitrabathy.
1987 Krishnasamy said that through his parents' arrangement, he married Chitrabathy on 1 June 1985, and together, they bore a daughter in 1986 and a son in 1989. He recounted that the first time he discovered his wife's infidelity was one night in 1987, when he called her workplace to look for his wife, but he was told that she was on leave. Krishnasamy stayed up to wait for his wife to return home, and when she did, Chitrabathy replied to Krishnasamy's question that she was at work, which contradicted the truth that she was on leave. After Krishnasamy told his wife that her supervisor told him she was on leave, Chitrabathy thus explained she went to a friend's home at Block 5, Boon Lay. However, Krishnasamy, who initially believed Chitrabathy, discovered that there was no Block 5 in Boon Lay. Upon Krishnasamy's further questioning, Chitrabathy admitted she was having an affair with a man called Vel Murugan Perumal, a Malaysian colleague of her workplace at Pelmac. Murugan was later told off by Krishnasamy and asked to not talk to his wife again, and Murugan also admitted he had sex with Chitrabathy. Krishnasamy was disappointed and he originally wanted to divorce his wife, but his mother advised him to give her a second chance and Krishnasamy eventually forgave his wife out of love for her.
After which, Chitrabathy resigned from her job at Pelmac and she stayed at home to take care of their daughter, and later their son after his birth in 1989. Krishnasamy became the sole breadwinner by working as a tour bus driver, until he was retrenched in 1993 and became a taxi driver. Chitrabathy later went to work at a Sony factory to supplement the family's income. During this period until 2000, the couple's relationship was normal.
2000 In March 2000, Krishnasamy returned home one night and found that his son was sick, and thus he tried calling his wife (who was on her night shift) to help bring him to see a doctor. However, despite his numerous calls, Chitrabathy did not answer the phone and thus Krishnasamy personally bring his son to the clinic instead. Then, the next morning, Krishnasamy's call was taken by an engineer at the factory. He was informed that the factory was closed for nine days and all staff were told to go on leave, and the date when Krishnasamy called her workplace was the third day of closure, and it dawned upon Krishnasamy that Chitrabathy never gone to work. Subsequently, in the afternoon, when Chitrabathy returned home, Krishnasamy angrily told her that their son was sick and he tried calling her to no avail, and asked where she had been. Chitrabathy answered that she was on work, but Krishnasamy saw through her lie and informed her he knew about the factory's nine-day closure. Although Chitrabathy changed her reply and said she went to a friend's house, Krishnasamy was still furious and he therefore assaulted Chitrabathy, suspecting that she might have had an affair again.
Eventually, Krishnasamy found out that Chitrabathy had an affair with a man named Gunaseelan Jayaseelan and they also had sex on a few occasions. Jayaseelan was an Indian national who was also Chitrabathy's colleague. Also, it was discovered that Chitrabathy was eight weeks' pregnant and the child was more likely to be Jayaseelan's, because Krishnasamy never had sex with his wife for four to five months and he also noticed Chitrabathy did not go through a menstrual period (Indian women, by custom, do not make prayers when they were menstruating) and had made prayers for more than a month straight. After Chitrabathy confessed and asked for a second chance, Krishnasamy decided to forgo his intention to divorce Chitrabathy and forgave her on account of their children and he still loved Chitrabathy, and also paid for the abortion. Jayaseelan, who was told by Krishnasamy to not talk to his wife anymore, returned to India in October 2001.
2001 – 2002 In December 2001, Krishnasamy found out that Chitrabathy was having another affair with a man called Anan, who was an Indian national working at a flower shop nearby Krishnasamy's matrimonial home. Krishnasamy assaulted Chitrabathy with a bamboo pole regarding this, and Chitrabathy admitted to the affair after getting beaten by her husband. Still, Krishnasamy forgave his wife for the incident out of love for his wife.
Subsequently, in January 2002, after she ended the affair, Chitrabathy reported to the police that Krishnasamy had assaulted her on three occasions, although she never admit to the police at first that she was assaulted over her past affairs. Krishnasamy, who was charged with three counts of voluntarily causing grievous hurt, pleaded guilty to one of the charges (the other two were taken into consideration during sentencing) and sentenced to three months' imprisonment on 25 March 2002, and Krishnasamy was released two months later after he was granted parole due to good behaviour. After which, the couple had a normal relationship.
Unknown to Krishnasamy, in 2003, Chitrabathy had a brief relationship with Michael Lee, a Malaysian colleague from her workplace, and she had sex with Lee a few times, and went to Genting Highlands with him at one point. Chitrabathy maintained contact with Lee through the year until she was killed by Krishnasamy.
2004 In March 2004, at one night, Krishnasamy noticed his wife was dressing up, and she replied there was a barbeque party with her colleagues at East Coast Park and she told Krishnasamy to no need come and fetch her. Krishnasamy felt peculiar that Chitrabathy would wear a white sleeveless blouse and a long denim skirt for a simple party and remembered she often wear T-shirts and Bermuda shorts. After Chitrabathy left, Krishnasamy felt uneasy throughout and asked one of his friends, who was also a taxi driver, to check if there was a barbeque party at East Coast Park, and it was confirmed by the friend that no such party was conducted at the place.