As per a PTI report, the court heard that Chellam approached the girl, now aged 16, on Instagram sometime last year and sent a request to follow her account. They began messaging each other on the platform with Chellam, who is married and has a young daughter, knowing she was a minor.

In mitigation, Chellam said he felt “very remorseful and shameful” and had not committed any other offences in the past three years of working in Singapore.

He was previously a safety coordinator. “I have gone through lots of suffering in this case. I lost my job, I miss my family, my wife and (two-year-old) daughter… Mine is a love marriage and my wife is on her own,” Chellam was quoted as saying by the TODAY newspaper.

District Judge Shawn Ho said that a stiff sentence was warranted as Chellam had exerted “pressure and coercion” on the victim.

The sentence was backdated to his date of remand, 18 August this year.

WITH AGENCY INPUTS