KUALA LUMPUR – The death sentence imposed on Malaysian national Datchinamurthy Kataiah was carried out today, Singapore authorities confirmed.
In a statement, the republic's Central Narcotics Bureau (CNB) said Datchinamurthy, 39, was convicted of possessing, for the purpose of trafficking, not less than 44.96 grams of diamorphine, or pure heroin.
“Under Singapore’s Misuse of Drugs Act, trafficking more than 15 grams of diamorphine carries the mandatory death penalty,” the statement read.
Authorities noted that the quantity involved was sufficient to feed the addiction of about 540 abusers for a week.
Datchinamurthy was convicted and sentenced to death on April 15, 2015. His subsequent appeal against the conviction and sentence was dismissed by the Court of Appeal on February 5, 2016.
In 2022, he was granted a stay of execution ahead of his scheduled date on April 29, 2022, to allow judicial review proceedings to commence.
Meanwhile, the family’s lawyer, N. Surendran, said they were informed in the afternoon that the execution would proceed, after earlier being told in the morning that it had been halted.
“This morning at 12.30 am., the family of Datchinamurthy received news that the execution was halted. To our shock, a short while ago, the family was informed that the execution would proceed, and to collect the body at 3 pm,” he said in a statement.
Datchinamurthy was represented by legal counsel throughout the trial and appeal process. His clemency petitions to the President of Singapore were unsuccessful.
The CNB said capital punishment is imposed only for the most serious crimes, such as large-scale drug trafficking, which causes grave harm not only to individual abusers but also to their families and society at large. - September 25, 2025
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