20 Facts About Vignes Mourthi

Ultimately, Vignes Mourthi was put to death alongside Moorthy as scheduled on 26 September 2003.

Vignes Mourthi's execution remained a controversy even in the aftermath due to his insistent claims of innocence.

Vignes Mourthi was a Malaysian born in the Malaysian state of Perak on 21 March 1980.

Vignes Mourthi had three sisters in his family, and he was married in April 2001.

Vignes Mourthi was working as a machine operator prior to his arrest.

On 20 September 2001,21-year-old Vignes Mourthi was arrested for drug trafficking.

Vignes Mourthi was approached by an undercover officer, Sergeant Rajkumar, who expressed his interest to buy a package of drugs and offered a payment of S$8,000.

At the scheduled location outside a mosque in Admiralty, Vignes Mourthi was arrested after he passed the package to Sergeant Rajkumar.

Vignes Mourthi said that five days before the crime, he met Moorthy at his family home and accepted the offer to deliver a package of incense stones to a man called Tahir in Singapore after knowing that Moorthy dabbled in the transportation business.

Vignes Mourthi stated that he had never seen heroin before and realised that the packages contained drugs only after he was arrested.

Vignes Mourthi denied telling the officers and interpreter in Tamil that the package contained "kallu", but he insisted it contained "sambrani kallu", a type of Indian incense stone normally used in Indian temples.

Vignes Mourthi even claimed that he had an alibi and was at his sister's house celebrating his nephew's 7th birthday on the day he supposedly met Vignes and made the offer to Vignes to help deliver the drugs.

Also, it was credible that he indeed instigated Vignes Mourthi to deliver the diamorphine.

Vignes Mourthi reiterated his claims of innocence and sought an acquittal.

However, on 20 January 2003, the Court of Appeal's three judges - Chao Hick Tin, Judith Prakash and the Chief Justice Yong Pung How - agreed with the trial judge Tay Yong Kwang's findings that Vignes Mourthi indeed knew that he carried diamorphine and was not truthful in his statements about delivering incense stones to Tahir.

Subsequently, Vignes Mourthi petitioned for clemency from then President of Singapore S R Nathan, which would allow Vignes Mourthi's sentence be commuted to life imprisonment if successful.

Inside the letter, it was informed that the execution of Vignes Mourthi was scheduled to take place on 26 September 2003.

Chief Justice Yong Pung How stated that there was lack of merit in his appeal, since there was indeed no jurisdiction for the court to intervene in a case that had been tried and had its right to appeal exhausted, and there was already confirmation that Vignes Mourthi was rightly convicted of the charge against him based on the evidence against him.

Vignes Mourthi was 23 years old at the time of his execution.

Vignes Mourthi's family were allowed to retrieve his body and they conducted a funeral and cremation for Vignes Mourthi.