Death of Tay Chow Lyang and Tony Tan Poh Chuan

On 15 September 2003, two Singaporean students and flatmates Tay Chow Lyang (郑潮亮) (b. 1977–d. 15 September 2003) and Tony Tan Poh Chuan (陈宝川) (b. 3 December 1976–d. 15 September 2003), were found brutally murdered in their flat in Sydney. Their fellow classmate and friend Ram Puneet Tiwary (born 1979), also a Singaporean, was accused of these two violent murders. The case, dubbed the "Sydney Double Murders" in the media, made headlines in both Singapore and Australia. Initially convicted twice for the deaths of Tan and Tay, Tiwary was acquitted upon his second appeal and freed nine years after the murders. The murders remain unsolved.

Murder

On 15 September 2003, two Singaporeans – 26-year-old Tay Chow Lyang and 27-year-old Tony Tan Poh Chuan – were found murdered in their flat in Sydney, Australia. Tay had been bludgeoned to death, and Tan was murdered when he returned from a university lecture. The victims' 24-year-old flatmate and fellow Singaporean, Ram Puneet Tiwary, who happened to be asleep in his room at the time of the murders, was awakened by sounds of violence. He locked himself in his room and called the ambulance and police upon seeing his flatmates' bodies. Tiwary, together with both Tay and Tan, attended the same class at the University of New South Wales (UNSW) at that time for an engineering course on an army scholarship.

Trials, appeals and acquittal

Initially a police witness, Tiwary was charged with murder 9 months later, on 28 May 2004. The prosecution alleged that Tiwary may have had possible motives to commit the crime. They claimed Tiwary owed Tay Chow Lyang A$5,045 in rent, a claim which Tiwary disputed. Police also alleged that Tiwary owed UNSW fees. It was alleged that a dispute had erupted between Tiwary and Tay that morning, resulting in the death of Tay and that the death of Tony Tan Poh Chuan was committed to cover up the earlier act. At the first trial, a 12-member jury found Tiwary, who maintained his innocence throughout, guilty of the double murder. He was sentenced to life imprisonment without parole in 2006. In his memoir, Tiwary posited a possibility that racism could have been behind his guilty verdict. During his period of imprisonment, fights with other inmates left him with a partial loss of sensation in his right thumb and a scarred left shoulder.

Tiwary filed an appeal and, in 2008, the Court of Appeal ordered a re-trial based on a review of the evidence, concluding that it did not amount to a murder conviction. The jury at the 2009 re-trial returned with a guilty verdict, this time in a majority decision. Tiwary was sentenced to 48 years' imprisonment. Tiwary made a second appeal against his conviction and sentence in 2012. The second appeal focused on Tiwary's tone in his phone call to the ambulance, the victims' unusual behaviour on the day of the murder as witnessed by several people, and the forensic evidence. The Court of Appeal decided that the evidence against Tiwary was not satisfactory and acquitted him of the charges two days after the hearing, 26 July 2012.

Aftermath

After his acquittal, Tiwary was detained for a while before being allowed to return to Singapore. On 19 September 2012, Tiwary once again stepped onto Singaporean soil. He declined to speak to reporters out of respect for the bereaved families of his two dead flatmates.

When told of the news of Tiwary's acquittal, Tony Tan's family expressed shock and were said to be once again at a loss over the events. Tan's mother, Mdm Chiew Lee Hua, then aged 64, said to the press, "My heart is in pain. If it wasn't him, then who was it?". The family of Tay Chow Lyang could not be contacted. Back in Australia, the prosecution confirmed they would not appeal against the decision of the appellate court.

After returning to Singapore, Tiwary wrote a memoir, titled 99 Months: The Case Of The Sydney Double Murders, which covers the case, his two trials, his experiences in prison, appeals, and his eventual acquittal. It was published in September 2014. At the time of publication, Tiwary was 35 years old. An article also mentioned that Tiwary had made a trip around the world after his return to Singapore and did not complete his mechanical engineering degree from Sydney. Other than that, Tiwary did not make any further comments about his private life. Even then, he still struggled with his trauma from the events of the past eight years.

The case was made into a documentary by Channel NewsAsia (CNA), in which Tiwary or his family declined to appear. Tony Tan's parents, Mr Tan Wee Sea and Mdm Chiew Lee Hua, and his sister Tan Poh Lin, were approached to talk about their feelings regarding the case, while Tay's family remained uncontactable.

The murderer(s) of Tay and Tan were never found.

Further reading

• "Regina v Tiwary [2006] NSWSC 1156". Jade. 6 November 2006. - Case report of the trial in the New South Wales Supreme Court
• R v Tiwary [2009] NSWSC 1415 (17 December 2009) - Case report of the trial in the New South Wales Supreme Court
• Tiwary v R [2008] NSWCCA 319 (17 December 2008) - Case report of the first appeal in the New South Wales Court of Criminal Appeal
• Tiwary v R [2012] NSWCCA 193 (10 September 2012) - Case report of the second appeal in the New South Wales Court of Criminal Appeal
• "A Violent Act". SBS. Retrieved 22 June 2020.
• Ram Tiwary (15 September 2014). 99 Months: The Case of the Sydney Double Murders. Marshall Cavendish International Asia Pte Ltd. ISBN 978-981-4634-75-5. Search this book on
• Porter, Liz (2017-11-15). "The trials of Ram Puneet Tiwary". Crime Scene Asia: When forensic evidence becomes the silent witness. Marshall Cavendish International Asia Pte Ltd. ISBN 978-981-4794-54-1. Search this book on

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