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SINGAPORE – A former Singaporean international footballer was found guilty on Thursday (October 22) of kissing and groping a friend on a Tinder date.
Mohammad Imran Sahib, 38, was convicted after trial on three counts: two counts of sexual abuse after he kissed the victim’s lips, then stroked her thigh and lifted her skirt to grasp and squeeze the inside of her right thigh; and one count of using criminal force by putting the victim’s hand in his mouth to suck his fingers.
Imran had played four times for the Singapore national team in 2004, and also participated in local professional clubs Sembawang Rangers, Woodlands Wellington, Home United and Tampines Rovers from 2001 to 2017.
Imran was a driver for Grab at the time of the crime and is married with three children.
The disco date got worse
The incident occurred on March 4, 2018, when Imran and the victim made plans to go dancing. The victim brought her friend; both were then 21 years old.
The trio visited several clubs that night, including Get Juiced, Fleek, and Baliza. They were heading to Imran’s car in a parking lot after 6 a.m. when the victim’s friend vomited.
According to the prosecution, the victim was asking her friend if she was okay when Imran grabbed her face and kissed her lips.
The victim immediately pushed Imran away, feeling shocked and uncomfortable. However, she did not tell her friend what had happened as she did not want her friend to be hurt. She thought her friend liked Imran romantically.
After the victim’s friend finished vomiting, the trio got into the car and Imran sent her back to her home in Ang Mo Kio. After dropping off the friend, Imran was exiting the residential parking lot when he touched the victim’s right thigh, then lifted her skirt and tightly grasped the inner right thigh.
The woman pushed his hand away. Imran, undeterred, grabbed her right hand and shoved his fingers into her mouth, sucking on them.
At this point, the victim used her mobile phone to send distress messages to her friend via WhatsApp. Upon receiving the victim’s messages, the friend called her, but the victim did not answer the phone call, as she did not want Imran to overhear the conversation.
A short time later, Imran stopped his car near a bus stop in Ang Mo Kio to relieve himself. While urinating, the victim got out and proceeded to walk barefoot toward her friend’s house. She had left her high heels behind in Imran’s car in her haste.
When Imran chased after her and grabbed her hand, claiming that he would send her, the victim rejected his offer. Then she walked for 25 minutes to her friend’s house, where she waited on the empty terrace. When her friend did not respond to her text messages, the victim called home for a taxi.
The victim’s sister found her crying in the living room. Encouraged by her sister, the victim filed a police report on March 20, 2018.
The defendant insisted that he never sexually abused the victim
Imran’s defense, argued by attorney A Revi Shanker, was that he never abused the victim.
She also claimed that it was anatomically impossible to touch the victim in the way she described. He claimed to have found his behavior repulsive, as he had yelled at strangers before, and flirted with him by repeatedly pushing him while they danced.
According to Imran, the victim had also used methamphetamine and was acting strangely.
He argued that the then-boyfriend of the victim, who is a cousin of the victim’s friend, had caused the victim to file a police report to get revenge on him.
However, District Judge Kan Shuk Weng rejected these arguments. She pointed out that the victim and her friend were no longer close and that the friend would not go through the charade of collaborating with the victim in order to make false accusations.
The parties will return to court on November 13 for Imran to be convicted.
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