A 26-year-old Indian national has been charged in Singapore with hiring and harboring 13 immigration offenders from India after their visit permits expired, authorities said.
Kanojia Riken and two Singaporeans were charged on May 21 with immigration-related offences, the Immigration and Checkpoints Authority (ICA) said in a statement on Thursday.
The statement said Riken was accused of harboring 13 other Indian immigration offenders, aged between 19 and 44, without conducting due diligence checks to ensure they had valid entry permits to remain in Singapore.
She added that immigration violators remained in Singapore illegally after the end of their visit.
On March 3, ICA officers raided an apartment in Singapore. In the apartment, they found 13 Indian nationals who had all overstayed in the island nation after their visitor permits had expired. The perpetrators were 11 men and two women aged between 19 and 44 years.
According to investigations, Riken allowed them to stay in the apartment for various periods between December 2025 and March 2026.
He allegedly did so without conducting due diligence checks to ensure they held valid permits to remain in Singapore.
He was also arrested on March 3 and charged with harboring immigration offenders on May 21.
The ICA also charged Song Yi Da, a 37-year-old Singaporean of Chinese origin, on May 21 with hiring an Indian man, Rajappa Raju, 39, who he knew did not have a valid work permit.
He was deported and banned from returning to Singapore.
The association said that another Singaporean of Indian origin, Subba Priyadarshini, was accused of hiring an Indian man who she knew did not have a valid work permit to work and stay in Singapore.
Subba, 32, is accused of employing an Indian man, Munyan Selraj Prakash, 26, who illegally remained in Singapore after his Short Term Visit Pass (STVP) expired on February 24, 2025.
Munyan was deported and banned from returning to Singapore.
A person found guilty of employing overstayers and/or illegal immigrants may be sentenced to a minimum of six months’ imprisonment and up to two years and a fine of up to S$6,000, the ICA said.
Anyone found guilty of recklessly or intentionally harboring overstayers and/or illegal immigrants may be sentenced to a minimum of six months’ imprisonment and up to two years and a fine of up to S$6,000.
Anyone found guilty of neglecting to accommodate overstayers and/or illegal immigrants may be sentenced to a fine of up to S$6,000 or imprisonment of up to 12 months, or both, the ICA said.
