Kovan double murders

On the afternoon of 10 July 2013, commuters at Kovan MRT station in Singapore witnessed a silver Toyota Camry dragging the body of a man face-down beneath it, leaving a trail of blood. The body, later identified as that of 42-year-old Tan Chee Heong, was dislodged outside the station after roughly 1 km of dragging. Police followed the blood trail to a house on Hillside Drive, where they found the body of Chee Heong's 67-year-old father, Tan Boon Sin, with 27 knife wounds. Chee Heong had sustained 20 stab and incised wounds. Both scenes were cordoned off for more than eight hours amid heavy traffic disruption and public attention.

A domestic helper working next door saw a man walk out of the house and get into a car, and a caretaker nearby saw the car reverse at speed before it was driven over Chee Heong’s body. Investigators identified the elder victim's car and, by the next day, classified the deaths as murder. The suspect was arrested on 12 July 2013 at a restaurant in Johor Bahru, Malaysia, by Royal Malaysia Police officers, and was identified as Senior Staff Sergeant Iskandar bin Rahmat, a 34-year-old Singapore Police Force investigation officer based in the Bedok Police Division. He was extradited to Singapore on 13 July and charged with murder on 15 July 2013. The case drew significant public and political attention because the accused was a serving police officer; then-Deputy Prime Minister Teo Chee Hean and Police Commissioner Ng Joo Hee both addressed the matter publicly, emphasizing zero tolerance for officer misconduct.

At trial, which began on 20 October 2015 before Justice Tay Yong Kwang in the High Court, forensic pathologist Dr Gilbert Lau testified about the extensive stab and incised wounds on both victims. Iskandar, who faced financial difficulties including impending bankruptcy, testified that he had planned to con Tan Boon Sin into withdrawing valuables under a false pretext, and that the killings occurred during a "sudden fight" and in self-defence after his plan was discovered. The prosecution argued the killings were intentional, pointing to the number and location of wounds and to bloodstained sock prints found in a linear pattern suggesting deliberate searching after the first killing. On 4 December 2015, Justice Tay convicted Iskandar of murder under Section 300(a) of the Penal Code and sentenced him to death, rejecting his defences of self-defence and sudden fight.

Iskandar's appeal, which added a new defence of diminished responsibility, was dismissed by the Court of Appeal on 3 February 2017. His clemency petition, filed in January 2018 alongside a separate petition by his family, was dismissed by President Halimah Yacob in July 2019 on Cabinet advice. Iskandar separately filed a complaint against his original defence lawyers alleging professional misconduct; this was dismissed by the Law Society of Singapore in June 2019, and his appeal against that decision was dismissed by the High Court, with judgment released on 28 February 2020. Iskandar was hanged on 5 February 2025 following the exhaustion of his legal avenues.