Trust Yoga ex-instructor fined $4,000 for molesting woman during lesson
An instructor at Trust Yoga tapped a female student’s buttocks during a lesson on May 22, 2022.
Indian national Kumar Amrit, 29, who is no longer working there, was fined $4,000 on Thursday after he pleaded guilty to a molestation charge.
He was the second former Trust Yoga instructor to appear in court in March over molestation charges in unrelated cases.
Another Indian national, Rajpal Singh, 33, has claimed trial after he allegedly molested five women. His case is pending.
For the current case, Deputy Public Prosecutor Tan Jing Min said that in April 2022, Kumar’s victim bought a 20-class package for one-on-one lessons at Trust Yoga in Telok Ayer Street.
The woman, whose details have been redacted from court documents, then attended three lessons with another yoga instructor, identified as Mr Manoj.
She was scheduled to have her fourth lesson with Mr Manoj at 9am on May 22, 2022, but he was unavailable for that time slot.
The woman then agreed for Kumar to take his place. During the lesson, Kumar asked her to perform some warm-up exercises.
The DPP said: “Without asking for the victim’s permission, the accused placed his hand on her lower back and applied pressure.
“He then instructed her to lie on her stomach while he used his feet to step on her buttocks and lower back. Subsequently, he used his hands to massage her upper back, while her face was pressed to the yoga mat.”
The prosecutor told the court that Kumar gave minimal verbal cues when moving the victim from one pose to the next as he did not feel like speaking to her.
Instead, he physically moved her into position without warning before telling her to perform a stretching exercise.
At 9.46am, Kumar physically moved the woman into another position.
He then placed his hand on her left buttock and applied pressure. He also rested his forearm against the victim’s buttock area.
DPP Tan said: “The accused counted to 15 seconds aloud and then... tapped his hand against the victim’s buttock, over her yoga pants.
“The victim felt shocked... She told the accused (not to touch her buttocks). The accused acknowledged and proceeded with the rest of the yoga class.”
After class, she went home and alerted the police later that day.
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