Severe reputational hit for WP chief: Observers

Mr Singh’s “vigorous attempts” at disputing this statement, Ms Khan’s WhatsApp message to her WP aides immediately after the meeting ended strongly corroborated her account.

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Taking this together with Mr Singh’s conduct, and the WP leaders’ hope or belief at that meeting that Ms Khan’s lie would not be raised in Parliament again, Justice Chong said he agreed with the trial judge.

Noting that a person’s reaction to significant events is usually revealing, Justice Chong said Mr Singh’s “complete failure to follow up” with Ms Khan between Aug 8 and Oct 3 was evidence that the WP chief saw no need to proactively clarify the untruth in Parliament.

Conversely, steps would have been taken during this period if the intention was to clarify the lie, given the potentially serious political fallout if it were not properly managed, he added.

“In sum, because of (Mr Singh’s) belief that Ms Khan’s lie was unlikely to surface again, he did not think that there was any need to rock the boat by volunteering the truth,” said the judge.

The second charge centred on Mr Singh having told Ms Khan at their Oct 3 meeting that “I will not judge you”. The prosecution and defence agreed that Mr Singh had said this, but disagreed on what he meant.

The judge said the ordinary meaning of the phrase had to do with someone taking a course of action considered to be objectionable.

“Judgment” carries a pejorative connotation of disapprobation, and a person who does the right thing needs no reassurance against receiving “judgment”, he added.

Therefore, ordinarily speaking, the statement would be to reassure the recipient that she will not be judged negatively if she does something objectionable like maintaining a lie, he said.