Indian Priest Awarded 6-Year Jail For Pawning Temple Jewellery In Singapore

Singapore: A 39-year-old chief priest of Singapore’s oldest Hindu temple was sentenced to jail on Tuesday for pawning over SGD 2 million (USD 1.5 million) of ceremonial jewellery repeatedly from a prominent temple, according to a media report.

Kandasamy Senapathi was enrolled by the Hindu Endowments Board as a priest at Sri Mariamman Temple in the downtown Chinatown district from December 2013 until he resigned on March 30, 2020.

According to reports, Kandasamy was caught during the COVID-19 pandemic struck in 2020, throwing the regular audit timing off and revealing the missing jewellery.

In 2014, he was entrusted with the keys and combination number code to the safe in the temple’s holy sanctum, which contained 255 pieces of gold jewellery owned by the temple, with a book value of about SGD 1.1 million.

Senapathi began pawning pieces of the jewellery in 2016, taking them to pawn shops and later redeeming them by using money he obtained from pawning other pieces of temple jewellery.

In 2016 alone, Senapathi pawned 66 pieces of gold jewellery from the temple on 172 occasions, the report said.

Following this, Kandasamy was sentenced to six years in jail on Tuesday (May 30) for his crimes.