Mathavakannan Kalimuthu (Tamil language: மாதவக்கண்ணன் காளிமுத்து; born 10 May 1978) is a Singaporean who, together with his two friends, murdered a gangster named Saravanan Michael Ramalingam on 26 May 1996. Mathavakannan, who was arrested on 4 July 1996, was tried and convicted of murder by the High Court of Singapore. As murder was a hanging offence in Singapore and since he was 16 days past his 18th birthday when he committed murder, Mathavakannan was sentenced to suffer the mandatory sentence of death on 27 November of the same year he killed Saravanan. Mathavakannan's two accomplices were also found guilty and sentenced to death in the same trial.
Despite losing his appeal on 14 October 1997, Mathavakannan was granted clemency by then President of Singapore Ong Teng Cheong, who commuted his sentence to life imprisonment on 28 April 1998, while his two friends were eventually executed on 29 May 1998 after they failed to obtain clemency from the President. Subsequently, Mathavakannan served a total of 16 years in prison (inclusive of the period he spent in remand and on death row) before he was released on 28 January 2012.
His case had attracted media attention once again on 28 November 2011 when he filed an appeal regarding the issue of his life sentence, whether it should be 20 years' imprisonment (the old definition) or imprisonment for the rest of his natural life (the new definition) in accordance to a landmark appeal by Abdul Nasir bin Amer Hamsah on 20 August 1997, which changed the definition of life imprisonment under the law. The High Court then allowed Mathavakannan's appeal, and he became a free man soon after and led a low-profile life since his release.
Even till today since 28 April 1998, Mathavakannan is significantly known to be the sixth and last person to receive clemency from the President of Singapore as there were no further cases where a death row inmate successfully receiving clemency in Singapore since then. The rarity of any President in Singapore pardoning a death row inmate from execution in Singapore was another factor that made Mathavakannan's case notable in the city-state and beyond its borders.
Early life
Mathavakannan Kalimuthu was born in Singapore on 10 May 1978. He was the only son of his family and had one younger sister (aged 16 in 1998). He studied in the Institute of Technical Education (ITE) in 1993 before he dropped out of school to find a job to support his parents (who both suffered from poor health) and sister, due to his parents' poor health and the need to support his sister's education. His father Muthusamy Kalimuthu (aged 50 in 1998), who worked at the Public Utilities Board, suffered from both epilepsy and an unknown mental illness and had to receive long-term treatment at the Institute of Mental Health (IMH) while his mother Arumugam Angelay (aged 47 in 1998), who suffered from hypertension and diabetes, worked as a junior officer at a production firm with a salary of S$1,100. Mathavakannan worked various jobs to support his family, including a cleaner at a hotel for eight months and a paint scraper at a aerospace company for one-and-a-half years, and a labourer before his enlistment for National Service.
Crime and capital punishment
Murder of Saravanan Michael Ramalingam
On 26 May 1996, exactly 16 days after celebrating his 18th birthday, 18-year-old Mathavakannan, together with his two older friends and secret society gang members, 23-year-old odd-job worker Asogan Ramesh Ramachandren (Tamil language: அசோகன் ரமேஷ் ராமச்சந்திரன்) and 24-year-old unemployed Selvar Kumar Silvaras (Tamil language: செல்வார் குமார் சில்வரஸ்), assaulted and murdered 25-year-old Saravanan Michael Ramalingam (Tamil language: சரவணன் மைக்கேல் ராமலிங்கம்), a secret society gangster from Sio Ang Koon Secret Society and Lion Brothers. Before that, Saravanan and Asogan had conflicts with each other on three previous occasions.
Before the murder, according to court documents detailing the case, Mathavakannan had gone drinking with both Selvar and Asogan on the night of 25 May 1996. It was not until the early hours past the morning of 26 May 1996 that the trio decided to head home. On the way, the trio encountered Saravanan, who was formerly schoolmates and friends with Selvar at Anderson Secondary School before they fell out due to their respective, different allegiances to each other's rival gangs from the underworld. Seeing him, Selvar, then a member of "Tiger Rose" gang, shouted at Saravanan, beckoning him over for a talk. In response, Saravanan allegedly shouted back some Tamil expletives and then ran away.