After woman tweeted she was molested by Trust Yoga instructor, 2 other alleged victims contacted her

Shaffiq Alkhatib
The Straits Times
March 7, 2023

A former instructor at Trust Yoga in Telok Ayer Street is claiming trial to eight molestation charges involving four alleged victims.

On the first day of Indian national Rajpal Singh’s trial on Tuesday, Deputy Public Prosecutor Selene Yap said that Singh, 33, was employed at Trust Yoga as a yoga instructor on April 1, 2019.

The first alleged victim, who was then 24, was allegedly molested by Singh on July 11, 2020. It was not stated in court documents if this was during a class.

The woman told a friend via WhatsApp about what had happened after her class, the DPP said.

She also spoke to Mr Arvind Ganaraj, who was a sales assistant manager at Trust Yoga at the time. The pair continued communicating with each other via text messages the next day.

On July 31, 2020, the woman posted on Twitter about her experience, and two other women, then 28 and 37 years old, reached out to her after reading it.

The 28-year-old also made a Facebook post about her experience.

The fourth alleged victim, who was then around 23 and 24 years old, saw an online review on Trust Yoga some time on or before Aug 25, 2020. Court documents did not disclose details about this review. She later contacted a person identified only as B2 in court documents via Facebook, and told the latter about her experience.

B2 then referred her to the first alleged victim, and the women spoke to each other via Instagram.

According to court documents, the four alleged victims made separate police reports in July and August 2020.

One of them testified on camera on Tuesday, in proceedings not open to the public, including members of the media.

Singh’s trial resumes on Wednesday.

He has two other molestation charges linked to a fifth woman, which will be dealt with at a later date. All five women cannot be named due to a gag order.