A 26-year-old Indian national has been charged in Singapore for employing and harbouring 13 immigration offenders from India after their visit passes had expired, authorities said.
Kanojiya Riken, along with two Singaporeans were charged on May 21 for immigration offences, the Immigration & Checkpoints Authority (ICA) said in a statement on Thursday.
Riken was charged for harbouring 13 other Indian immigration offenders, aged between 19 and 44 years old, without conducting due diligence checks to ensure that they held valid passes to remain in Singapore, the statement said.
The immigration offenders had remained unlawfully in Singapore after the expiry of their visit passes, it said.
On March 3, ICA officers raided a flat in Singapore. In the flat, they found 13 Indian nationals who had all overstayed in the island-state after their visit passes had expired. The offenders comprised 11 men and two women aged between 19 and 44 years old.
According to investigations, Riken had allowed them to stay in the flat for various periods between December 2025 and March 2026.
He allegedly did this without conducting due diligence checks to ensure that they held valid passes to remain in Singapore.
He was also arrested on March 3 and charged with harbouring immigration offenders on May 21.
The ICA also charged Song Yi Da, a 37-year-old Singaporean of Chinese origin, on May 21 for employing an Indian man, Rajappa Raju, 39, whom he knew did not possess a valid work permit.
He has been deported and is barred from re-entering Singapore.
Another Singaporean of Indian origin, Suba Priyadarshini, was charged for employing an Indian man whom she knew did not possess a valid work permit to work and remain in Singapore, said the ICA.
Suba, 32, was charged with employing an Indian man, Muniyan Selvaraj Prakash, 26, who had remained unlawfully in Singapore after his Short-Term Visit Pass (STVP) expired on February 24, 2025.
Muniyan has been deported and is barred from re-entering Singapore.
A person found guilty of employing overstayers and/or illegal immigrants may be sentenced to imprisonment for a term of not less than six months and up to two years and a fine of up to SGD6,000, the ICA said.
A person found guilty of recklessly or knowingly harbouring overstayers and/or illegal immigrants may be sentenced to imprisonment for a term of not less than six months and up to two years and a fine of up to SGD6,000.
A person found guilty of negligently harbouring overstayers and/or illegal immigrants may be sentenced to a fine of up to SGD6,000 or to imprisonment for a term of up to 12 months, or to both, the ICA said.
Curated by Shiv Shakti Mishra
