luck9 Ex-WP member testifies about 'witch hunt' against Raeesah Khan, how Pritam Singh was getting off 'scot-free'
Updated:2024-10-21 03:01 Views:195SINGAPORE: A former Workers' Party (WP) member and aide to Ms Raeesah Khan testified on the stand against WP chief Pritam Singh on Friday (Oct 18) about the "witch hunt" he felt was launched against Ms Khan to "kick her out" of the party.
This was while Singh, who knew about Ms Khan's lie a few days after she made it in parliament in August 2021, was getting off "scot-free", testified Mr Yudhishthra Nathan.
Mr Nathan, who was in the WP for six years before he left in 2022, is now a graduate student doing a Doctor of Philosophy in sea level research.
He took the stand as the prosecution's third witness against Singh, 48, who is on trial for two charges of lying before the Committee of Privileges (COP) when answering questions about what he wanted Ms Khan to do regarding her lie.
Mr Nathan described how he joined WP in 2013 as a volunteer, becoming a cadre member with voting rights in mid-2016.
He got to know Ms Khan about a year before the 2020 General Election, when she was deployed to walk the ground in Sengkang with the grassroots team, which Mr Nathan was a member of.
He also knew Ms Khan's secretarial assistant, long-time WP member Ms Loh Pei Ying, from as early as 2013 when they volunteered together for the party.
Ms Khan lied in parliament on Aug 3, 2021, about accompanying a rape victim to a police station.
Later that same day, she called Mr Nathan from Parliament House and said she was being asked by Singh to furnish details about her anecdote.
Mr Nathan said he asked Ms Khan how she got to know this rape victim in the first place, and she replied that it was through a women's rights organisation.
He then asked Ms Khan if she would be able to get in contact with the victim, but she said no.
He said then that he was doubtful a women's rights organisation would provide her with details of the victim because of confidentiality reasons, and to tell Singh so.
Under questioning from Deputy Public Prosecutor Sivakumar Ramasamy, Mr Nathan said he learnt that the rape anecdote was false on Aug 7, 2021 through a Zoom call he had with her and Ms Loh.
Before the Zoom call, Ms Khan told Mr Nathan and Ms Loh in a group chat they shared that she had "done something terrible" and she wanted to tell them about it.
"Ms Loh asked something like, is it easy to contain, and (Ms Khan) said possibly. I think she said, possibly, if Pritam wants it that way, or something like that," said Mr Nathan.
At the same timeluck9, he said he was messaging Ms Loh, as they were trying to figure out what this "big thing" was.
