On 16 October 1972, 21-year-old Chelliah Silvanathan, alias Tampines Rajah, attacked and stabbed another man Arumugam Jayamani (aged 21), alias Beatles Rajah, outside a sarabat stall in Enggor Street, Tanjong Pagar, and as a result of the stabbing, Arumugam died and Chelliah was charged with murder.
[2] On the night of 16 October 1972, in front of a backlane sabarat stall at Enggor Road, Tanjong Pagar, a man was stabbed by another person and died.
Identified as 21-year-old Arumugam Jayamani (alias Beatles Rajah), the victim was found to have suffered stab wounds, and the detectives could not find the murder weapon from nearby the scene of crime; while the motive of the murder was yet to be established, the police interviewed several people around the area for witnesses.
Though there were no direct witnesses to the stabbing, the sabarat stallholder Yusof Maideen testified that he heard no commotion happening in front of his stall and only heard Arumugam crying for help as he was preparing some drinks, and witnessed Arumugam clutching his injury and staggered before he collapsed.
[20][21] On 16 January 1975, Chelliah applied for special leave to appeal to the Privy Council in London for a review of his case.
[26] More than three decades after Chelliah was put to death, his former lawyer Subhas Anandan recorded his case inside his 2009 book The Best I Could.
[7] Chelliah's case was Anandan's first murder case during his early years as a lawyer, and although he lost the case and it ended with Chelliah hanged for the murder, it made an impact on his legal career as Anandan would manage over 1,500 criminal cases (including murder, rape and drug trafficking) through his 45-year-long legal career,[7] until he died from a heart attack in January 2015,[27] and Anandan became renowned for his representation of suspects charged in high-profile murder cases,[28] including infamous wife-killer Anthony Ler,[29] Kallang body-parts murderer Leong Siew Chor,[30] schizophrenic child-killer Constance Chee Cheong Hin,[31][7] Oriental Hotel killer Abdul Nasir Amer Hamsah,[7] notorious gunman Tan Chor Jin,[32] and child-killer Took Leng How.