Complaints of Wrongful Accusation Leading to Investigation of Innocent Parties

2 Mr Gan Thiam Poh asked the Minister for Home Affairs (a) in the past 10 years, how many complaints have been received from complainants that they have been wrongly arrested/accused based on the information given by informants after investigations; (b) what actions have been taken against those who have made wrong or willful accusations resulting in the arrest of innocent parties and causing embarrassment to them; and (c) whether the Police will allow the complainants to take civil and defamation suits against those who have willfully or intentionally accused wrong parties that resulted in abuse of Police resources.

The Second Minister for Home Affairs (Mrs Josephine Teo) (for the Minister for Home Affairs): Mr Speaker, Sir, when a Police report is made accusing a person of a crime, it is the Police's responsibility to conduct a thorough investigation and establish the facts. The Police will then take further actions based on the findings. This includes placing a person under arrest. The Police do not make arrests based simply on allegations by a complainant.

Deliberately giving wrong or false information to mislead the Police is an offence under section 182 of the Penal Code. A person who is convicted of such an offence can be jailed for up to a year, fined up to $5,000, or both.

In the past five years, there were, on average, about 200 cases each year of persons providing false information to public servants, including the Police. The action taken against such persons depends on the facts of each case and whether it appears that there was deliberate intention. In cases where the false report resulted in a significant waste of public resources, offenders may be prosecuted in Court.

The wrongfully accused party may also take up civil suits against those who have willfully or wrongfully provided false information against them.

Mr Speaker: Mr Gan Thiam Poh.

Mr Gan Thiam Poh (Ang Mo Kio): Sir, I came across the case of a resident. It could be due to misunderstanding. The Police could not release the identity of the person who lodged the Police report. The accused was wrongfully arrested, in that sense. So, he feels that injustice had been done to him. So, I wish to ask the Minister, under such circumstances when the Police could not reveal the identity of the complainant, what actions can be taken by the Police to assure the accused that action had been taken against the one who had wrongfully lodged the complaint?

Mrs Josephine Teo: Speaker, Sir, I would like to assure the Member that if and when the Police do decide to make an arrest, it must have grounds to believe that the person is not wrongly accused. If the Police's investigation leads them to the conclusion that there is nothing untoward about the person's conduct that would warrant an arrest, then they would not go ahead with an arrest.

I do not know the specifics of the case that the Member has brought up. But I want to give the assurance that the Police only go ahead with an arrest if they have reason to believe that the person has committed an offence that is arrestable. If upon further investigation, they draw a different conclusion, that is a separate matter from them having to make the arrest in the first place. But to make an arrest in the first place, the Police must have reason to believe that an arrestable offence has been committed.