The woman in the middle of an exorcism suit was not in court last week. But enough was said about her at the hearing to put together a picture of her and her life

THOSE who showed up in Court 4D of the Supreme Court last Wednesday were expecting to see the very woman in the middle of what would be one of the most sensational court battles of the year.

A YOUNGER MADAM VALLI, aged 20. After O levels, she was a student nurse at Singapore General Hospital for three months, and then she joined Telecoms as an operator. Photo/ COURTESY OF MADAM VALL'S FAMILY

On the first day, the police had to turn away about 10 people as the seats in court were all taken up. The next day, two extra benches were added, but still not everyone who came could fit in.

Her lawyer, Mr R.S. Bajwa, produced a medical certificate excusing her from attending court for the week for exacerbated post-traumatic stress disorder.

But even in her absence, those present got more than a glimpse into her riveting life: they got starkly differing portraits of the 51-year-old and the family that means so much to her.

For two days, they heard her daughter, 22-year-old Subashini Jeyabal - the only witness so far - try to paint a picture of a caring mother who had great expectations of her two children and a regular, happy family.

At the same time, they also witnessed the defence team try to shred this same picture with questions about Madam Valli's mental history, reports of physical and verbal abuse at home and even insinuations of an affair between her and another man.

It was enough for defence counsel Tito Isaac to say, while cross-examining Miss Jeyabal: "I'm beginning to wonder if we're talking about the same woman."

Miss Jeyabal had a comeback for that: "What my mother's been like to me, she might not have been like to other people."

Beyond what is at stake in this case - whether Madam Valli's post-traumatic stress disorder was caused by alleged acts of assault, battery, false imprisonment and negligence by the defendants that night of Aug 10, 2004 in Novena Church - details about her past were thrown up.

She went to Yio Chu Kang Primary School and Cedar Girls' Secondary School, where she completed her O levels. After three months as a student nurse at Singapore General Hospital, she joined Telecoms as a telecoms operator.

Her father had been a technician there and her mother was a housewife. Madam Valli was the third of the couple's eight children.

It was at Telecoms that she met her husband when she was just 17 and he was 24.

The couple married four years later and their son, Jairajkumar, was born two years after that.

MADAM AMUTHA VALLI anf her husband Suppiah Jeyebal on their wedding day (left); and a family portrait with her husband and two children, Jairajkumar and Subashini. Photos/ COURTESY OF MADAM VALLI'S FAMILY

Encouraged by her family, she started going into trances at the age of 12 for religious ceremonies at home. Madam Valli later accepted Christianity, something which supposedly upset her late parents.

It was her husband, Mr Suppiah Jeyabal, who discovered that Madam Valli had a knack for quick steps and introduced her to a friend, racewalking coach Derrick de Souza.

In 1984, she was Singapore's No. 2 woman walker, but made headlines in the same year for her biting criticism of the Singapore Amateur Athletic Association's walking judges, who she claimed were inexperienced.

Madam Valli later also groomed her two children by coaching them in racewalking.

The family did not subscribe to one religion, but embraced both Hinduism and Catholicism.

In her five-room Ang Mo Kio flat, a poster of Indian religious leader Sathya Sai Baba was placed next to a wooden cross on one wall.

On another wall was a painting depicting The Last Supper while a small Hindu altar sat in one corner of the dark living room.

There was a bed covered with a zebra-print spread in between two couches. Miss Jeyabal had said in court that her mother slept with her and the maid in the living room while her father slept alone in a bedroom.

The balcony has been converted into a mini-office where a computer sat on an office desk. The family has lived in this flat for 24 years.

Prior to that, she was a private tutor with about 30 students, most of whom were from China, South Korea and Indonesia. She taught subjects such as A and E Mathematics and General Paper, charging $100 for a 11/2-hour session.

She has since stopped teaching, claiming in court documents that she had been traumatised by the Novena incident and unable to work or manage herself.

What is not in dispute in court is the fact that Madam Valli has been seeing psychiatrists for over 20 years.

Medical notes made by doctors pieced together a puzzle of a woman haunted by trances where she sometimes behaved like a snake.

As early as 1986, doctors at the National University Hospital, where she was warded for nearly a month, diagnosed her as suffering from a dissociative state.

There, she told doctors she had gone to see notorious medium and murderer Adrian Lim twice around 1984 for a cure for her trances. She supposedly drank blood and went into trances with him.

Subsequently, she was also seen by physicians at the Institute of Mental Health, where she was warded for alcohol dependency in 2000, Flame Tree Clinic, Peace Family Clinic, Tan Tock Seng Hospital (TTSH) and Changi General Hospital.

At TTSH, where she stayed for two weeks after the incident, she cut her thumb with a razor blade and drew disturbing images with her blood.

Associate Professor Ong Thiew Chai, a consultant at the hospital's department of psychological medicine, said in court documents that she drew "numerous pictures while in the ward, detailing her anguish with words like 'kill me, help, I am going to die...don't watch me'".

She also refused to bathe for five weeks during the four times she was admitted to TTSH and defecated on newspapers because she feared going to the toilet.

MADAM VALLI, SEEN HERE, training with her son, used to be Singapore's No. 2 women walker (left), and as she is today. Photos/ ST

But beyond these facts, questions over whether the family was a dysfunctional one surfaced time and time again over the first two days of the trial.

By Miss Jeyabal's account, the family was a happy one, except for the occasional fight - something echoed in her 28-year-old brother's affidavit too.

The fights had mostly to do with the two children?s lack of interest in school.

Miss Jeyabal admitted her mother was upset that she had dropped out of Catholic Junior College in her second year and her brother from his third-year civil engineering course at the National University of Singapore.

Mr Jairajkumar went to Raffles Institution and is now a Law and Management external student of the University of London, while Miss Jeyabal attended Raffles Girls' School and is now in the third year of her genetics undergraduate studies at the PSB Academy.

Their parents enjoyed a warm, normal, husband-and-wife relationship. Mr Jeyabal, a taxi driver who works 17-hour days, would buy her lunches and dinners.

"She was a very, very strong individual," Miss Jeyabal had said of her mother, whom she said she was close to and confided in.

Even in the face of substantial medical reports dragged out by defence lawyers dating over 20 years, the confident young woman stood firm, denying any knowledge of her mother's psychiatric condition prior to her alleged exorcism incident on Aug 10, 2004.

She didn't know about her mother's alcoholism either, even though Madam Valli reportedly told doctors she downed one bottle of gin a day on her own.

These denials became ammunition for the defence team, who trained their questions on just how well Miss Jeyabal knew her mother.

Even if it did not look like Miss Jeyabal was off to a good start - she had wrongly identified Father Jacob Ong as another man in the packed public gallery - she never lost her composure.

Not when she was asked if she knew the family owed TTSH $45,000 for Madam Valli's medical treatment.

Daughter to the defence 'What my mother's been like to me, she might not have been like to other people.' - MS SYUBASHINI JEYEBAL, Madam Valli's daughter, responding to defence counsel Tito Isaac

Not when Senior Counsel Jimmy Yim, representing Father Ong, asked if Madam Valli had intimate relations with private equity investor and family friend Resham Singh, 38, who was also present on the night of the incident.

Not when lawyers cited doctors' notes documenting Madam Valli's claims that her husband and her children beat her up because they wanted money.

Not true, she insisted. But when asked if she had ever seen her father hit her mother, Miss Jeyabal admitted: "When I was younger, yes. Sometimes, a slap."

Cross-examined by Mr Isaac, the lawyer for Father Simon Tan and the order of Redemptorist priests who run the church, her answers to his seemingly niggling questions sometimes bordered on sarcasm, complete with furrowed brows and rolled eyes.

But her performance on Day 2 of the trial was markedly different when probed by the more vigorous and commanding Mr Yim.

At one point, when he vehemently asked why she called her mother a "slut" and a "prostitute" and suggested it might have to do with Mr Singh, Miss Jeyabal's composure finally cracked.

"I do regret that," she said quietly, breaking down for the first time.

Mr Singh, whose late father was friends with Mr Jeyabal, will likely be grilled about his close relationship with Madam Valli when he gets into the witness box.

He has been staying over at the family's flat three to four nights a week since the start of this year, despite having his own home in Dover Road. He sleeps on a sofa bed in the mini-office.

Miss Jeyabal said her father asked Mr Singh to help take care of her mother.

A private investigator's report - which collected 1,000 hours of surveillance over five months - produced by the defence team, said Mr Singh and Madam Valli appear to have an "extremely close emotional bond and they are always seen in public together".

But before that, all eyes will be on the woman in the centre of this conflict, Madam Valli, who is expected to take the stand when hearing resumes on Wednesday.

Those hoping for a glimpse of her will surely be showing up at Court 4D.

What the case is about

ON AUG 10, 2004, Madam Amutha Valli Krishnan, her two children and a family friend she refers to as her 'brother', Mr Resham Singh, went to Novena Church after 10pm.

Madam Valli claims she fainted while praying and was taken to a room where she was forcefully confined and subjected to exorcism rites by two priests, Father Simon Tan and Father Jacob Ong.

Madam Valli claims the ritual made her suffer post-traumatic stress disorder. She is seeking compensation from the Redemptorist order that runs the Novena Church, the two priests and six church-goers who supposedly helped in the ritual.

The defendants claim Madam Valli's family brought her to the church and asked Father Jacob to help because she was "possessed".

The priest claims he saw Madam Valli "creeping on the floor", and asked Father Simon for help. Father Simon also said he saw Madam Valli march into the room on her own accord and in full view of other witnesses.

The defendants claim that while they did restrain her from time to time when she became violent, they merely prayed over her.

The six church-goers involved in the case were members of a choir group associated with the church.

Madam Valli made a police report within 12 hours of the incident, but no criminal charges were filed against the defendants.

This article was first published by The Straits Times on Oct 28, 2007.

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