Man admits submitting fake documents to bring twins born via surrogacy in India into Singapore.
A Singaporean couple travelled to India to perform in-vitro fertilisation (IVF) as they couldn’t conceive.
When a surrogate mother became pregnant with twin boys, the 45-year-old Singaporean man sought to bring the boys back to Singapore. A DNA test conducted in 2015 showed that he was not the biological father.
He obtained and used fake birth certificates for the boys in an attempt to apply for their Singapore citizenship.
The man, who cannot be named to protect the identity of his boys, pleaded guilty to one count of knowingly making a false statement in an application for Singapore citizenship for one of the boys. He stated in the application that he was the father of the boy, even though he was not.
He also admitted to one count of providing a fake Indian birth certificate for the same boy to a consular officer at the Consulate-General of Singapore in Mumbai in order to apply for a Document of Identity.
The man also pleaded guilty to one count of presenting a fake birth certificate of the second boy to the Immigrations and Checkpoints Authority (ICA).
Six counts of a similar nature will be taken into consideration when the man is sentenced.
The offences came to light when the man’s 35-year-old wife lodged a police report against him on 10 October 2014. Her reason for doing so was not stated in court documents.
The police report stated that the man had obtained fake documents in respect of the twin boys and submitted them to the High Commission of Singapore in India in order to bring them to Singapore.
The provision of surrogacy services is illegal in Singapore. Parents who have gone overseas for surrogacy and return to apply for adoption of their surrogate children will have their applications assessed on a “case-by-case basis”, Minister for Social and Family Development Desmond Lee said in Parliament last month.
Singapore is looking into the issue of surrogacy and reviewing adoption laws after a landmark case where the high court allowed a gay father to adopt his biological child conceived via surrogacy in the United States.
Photo: Pixabay
Based on CNA
