Murder of Wan Cheon Kem
On May 30, 2006, 46-year-old Wan Cheon Kem, a lorry driver delivering 2,700 mobile phones worth about S$1.3 million, was attacked by three robbers on Changi Coast Road. The men robbed him and beat him with a baseball bat, leaving him unconscious. Wan died on June 5, 2006 after an eight-hour operation to repair head injuries.
The crime was planned by Arsan Krishnasamy Govindarajoo, who learned of Wan’s delivery from Wan’s colleague Ragu Ramajayam, who helped organise the heist. The three robbers were Nakamuthu Balakrishnan, Daniel Vijay Katherasan, and Christopher Samson Anpalagan. Ragu was charged with abetting the robbery.
Police recovered 2,158 of the 2,700 phones, with many others sold on after the robbery. The case was reclassified as murder after Wan’s death. The suspects faced these charges: Balakrishnan, Daniel, Christopher, and Arsan for murder; Ragu for abetting armed robbery with hurt.
In 2007, Balakrishnan, Daniel, Christopher, and Arsan were charged with murder; Ragu was charged with abetting. In 2008, the High Court found Balakrishnan, Daniel, and Christopher guilty of murder and Balakrishnan was sentenced to death; Arsan was convicted of abetting armed robbery with hurt and received about 16.5 years in prison with caning; Ragu received six years with 12 strokes of the cane (later reduced on appeal).
In 2010, the Court of Appeal ruled that Daniel and Christopher should not be convicted of murder because they did not share the intention to kill Wan. They were re-sentenced to armed robbery with hurt: 15 years’ imprisonment and 15 strokes of the cane, backdated to 2006. Balakrishnan’s murder conviction and death sentence stood. Arsan’s murder charge remained downgraded to abetting armed robbery with hurt.
Daniel and Christopher’s appeals to further reduce their sentences were rejected in 2011. Balakrishnan remained on death row and was executed on July 8, 2011. The case helped drive changes to Singapore’s death-penalty laws, enacted in 2013 to allow life imprisonment with caning for some murders lacking the intent to kill.
Wan Cheon Kem, who was single, left behind his elderly mother and four siblings. He had worked as a lorry driver for more than a decade.
This page was last edited on 3 February 2026, at 02:36 (CET).