Datchinamurthy a/l Kataiah (born 30 December 1985) is a Malaysian man who was sentenced to death in Singapore for drug trafficking. Datchinamurthy was convicted of trafficking nearly 45g of heroin across the Woodlands Checkpoint from Malaysia to Singapore in January 2011. Having been convicted of the crime and also not certified as a courier, Datchinamurthy was sentenced to death in 2015. He had a co-accused, Christeen d/o Jayamany, who was sentenced to life imprisonment for the same offence.
After Datchinamurthy lost his appeal in January 2016, he tried to appeal to the President of Singapore for clemency to commute his sentence to life imprisonment. The clemency process took three years before it finally concluded and it was decided that Datchinamurthy should be executed and thus clemency was denied. Originally scheduled on 29 April 2022, his execution is currently suspended due to ongoing appeals he filed in relation to his case.
Personal life
Born on 30 December 1985 in Malaysia, Datchinamurthy Kataiah was the only son of his parents. He grew up together with his three sisters at Johor Bahru. His family was poor during his early life, and Datchinamurthy, who had a cheerful and gentle personality, was close to his family. Despite his poverty, he was kind and helped those in need.
After he finished his secondary school education at age 17 and reached his adult years, Datchinamurthy eventually became engaged to a woman. Their first child was born sometime after Datchinamurthy was arrested for drug trafficking in Singapore.
It was revealed in 2022 that Datchinamurthy's father died a year after his son was arrested for drug offences, and he never got to see his son one last time at his deathbed; Datchinamurthy was also denied leave to go attend the funeral, where the son must be present at a parent's burial according to Hindu traditions.
Crime and sentence
Capture and trial
On 18 January 2011, Datchinamurthy, together with a Singaporean accomplice Christeen Jayamany, were arrested at the Woodlands Checkpoint by the Singapore authorities for allegedly trafficking over 44.96g of heroin across the border of Singapore from Malaysia. As the amount of trafficked heroin exceeds the legal minimum of 15g, Datchinamurthy and Christeen were both charged with capital drug trafficking, which warrants the mandatory death penalty in Singapore if found guilty. They were later both tried in the High Court of Singapore for the alleged offences.
According to both the defendants' accounts, prior to their capture, Chirsteen, who was facing financial difficulties and needed money to take care of her children, was hired by Datchinamurthy through connections and introductions to other people. She was asked to deliver something by Datchinamurthy, who provided her a bag which she should pass to another person, and Datchinamurthy stated he will pay her $200 once the job is done. Christeen also stated she did not know that the bag contained packages of drugs. Likewise, Datchinamurthy denied that he had any knowledge of the drugs. He stated he was offered a job by a friend named "Rajah", who wanted to pay him to deliver some drugs, which Rajah assured him were "not serious" and Datchinamurthy thus believed he was delivering traditional Chinese medicine after checking the bags himself and thus did not suspect anything; the drugs, according to him, looked brown and did not look white (which was the normal appearance of heroin). Datchinamurthy was also in charge of relaying messages between Rajah and Christeen. Hence, both accused persons sought to downplay their conduct and paint themselves as couriers, through their defence lawyers, to escape the death penalty. Under the law, should a drug convict was merely acting as courier or suffering from diminished responsibility, he or she will only be eligible for life imprisonment but not death.