[6] On 6 September 2013, before he could exit Singapore via the Tuas Checkpoint, a Malaysian named Mogan Valo was arrested by the Central Narcotics Bureau (CNB) shortly after 10:00 pm.

During a vehicle search, two packages containing a total of 1.0179 kilograms (2.244 lb) of marijuana (or cannabis) were found inside the Proton Persona Mogan was driving.

In March 2014, the police identified "India" as 37-year-old Tangaraju Suppiah (a childhood friend of Suresh), and arrested him after linking him to the drug offences committed by Mogan.

Tangaraju was already in remand facing unrelated charges of drug consumption, and was arrested that same month after jumping bail and failing to report for urine tests since September 2013.

Before the start of the trial, Mogan had already pleaded guilty to a non-capital charge of trafficking 499.99 grams (17.637 oz) of marijuana and was sentenced to 23 years' imprisonment and 15 strokes of the cane.

However, the prosecution argued the user of the first mobile phone number Mogan was in contact with could not have been Suresh, since his mobile phones were seized upon his arrest at the McDonald's, and after the CNB officers directed Mogan to call "India" to ascertain whether the police had arrested the right man, the call was received by another person, meaning that "India" and Suresh could not have been the same person.

Suresh, who came to court as a witness, was not subjected to further action by the authorities since he received a discharge not amounting to acquittal after being charged with conspiracy with unknown persons to traffic in marijuana.

Justice Hoo stated that based on this fact, she deemed Tangaraju an untruthful witness who lied about the loss of his handphones, and he clearly changed his story at a late stage to distance himself from his guilt and should he really be innocent, he would have at the first instance mentioned it rather than belatedly raised it in the middle of his trial.

[7] Therefore, Justice Hoo found 41-year-old Tangaraju Suppiah guilty of abetting the trafficking of cannabis by engaging in a conspiracy with another person, contrary to Section 12 of the Misuse of Drugs Act.

[15][16][17][18] In February 2023, Tangaraju filed a motion to the Court of Appeal, seeking to reopen his case and a review of his conviction due to a change in the law regarding prosecutors' disclosure of material witness statements to the defence.

However, after reviewing his case, Judge of Appeal Steven Chong Horng Siong rejected the motion as they found that even without the disclosure of witness accounts, Tangaraju's conviction would still stand in view of objective evidence and they pointed out that the lack of disclosure of phone call records could not be believed since by the time Tangaraju was arrested, the records were no longer there despite the police's best efforts to retrieve them and they could only obtain the subscription details.

[34] The Central Narcotics Bureau (CNB) made a public statement to reply that Tangaraju was accorded full due process and had access to legal counsel throughout the process, and also highlighted parts of the evidence where it demonstrated that Tangaraju was truly guilty of trafficking the package with 1.0179 kilograms (2.244 lb) of marijuana, which they stated was sufficient to feed 150 abusers for a week, and twice the minimum amount of 500 grams (18 oz) that mandated the death sentence in Singapore.

[36][37][38] Clemency appeals signed by family members, friends, relatives and activists were also sent to the Istana with hopes to commute Tangaraju's death sentence to life imprisonment.

[40] On 25 April 2023, Justice Steven Chong denied a last-minute attempt to challenge Tangaraju's death sentence, stating the court found that he did not meet the requirements for a review application under the Criminal Procedure Code (CPC).

[41][42][43] Justice Chong highlighted the fact that the exact amount of drugs, "two bundles containing not less than 1017.9 grams of cannabis", was expressly put to him during his original trial when he denied having any involvement in their trafficking.

[48][49][50] The United Nations Human Rights Office, via its spokesperson Ravina Shamdasani, released a statement on the eve of Tangaraju's scheduled execution,[51] highlighting concerns about the original court case around "due process and respect for fair trial guarantees.

The press briefing also called on the Singapore Government to "adopt a formal moratorium on executions for drug-related offences and to ensure the right to a fair trial for all defendants in line with its international obligations".

[63] Former lawyer M Ravi, who was no longer practising law since 2023 due to a five-year suspension for his disciplinary issues, called for more support to stop Tangaraju's execution.

[64] Phil Robertson, a deputy director of Human Rights Watch, described the nature of Tangaraju's case as one where it was "not good enough when the sentence is so totally final and irreversible.

[79][8] A spokesperson of the Singapore Prison Service confirmed in a media statement that Tangaraju's sentence was carried out per the scheduled timing written in his death warrant.

[84][85] Maya Foa, a director at Reprieve, a non-governmental organization, stated that the execution of Tangaraju should serve as an inspiration to argue for the end of capital punishment, which she described as a "cruel and ineffective practice".

[87] Former political prisoner Teo Soh Lung, who was one of the main conspirators of a 1987 communist plot, also criticized the execution, questioning that there was a "miscarriage of justice" in Tangaraju's case.

[89] A 32-year-old Singaporean man named Vickreman Harvey Chettiar was remanded at the Institute of Mental Health (IMH) on 5 May 2023 after his arrest and indictment for threatening to cause bodily harm or death to President Halimah Yacob, with evidence showing that his threat was made in relation to his social media posts, which showed his displeasure and opposition to the death sentence of Tangaraju, who was hanged after failing to obtain presidential clemency one final time.

[91] In rebuttal to the condemnation by the UN Human Rights Office (which likewise called for the abolition of capital punishment and a moratorium on executions in Singapore),[92] the Singapore government reiterated that during the course of his trial and appeal, Tangaraju, like all other death row prisoners in Singapore, was accorded full due process throughout and they stated that all countries have the sovereign right to choose the approach that best suits their own circumstances, and that the death penalty played an important role in having not only eradicated the firearm violence rate and kidnapping rate, but also to greatly reduce the rate of opium trafficking by 66% upon the introduction of the mandatory death sentence for opium trafficking in 1990, and they stated that drug abuse was a pervasive problem that the government sought to stem and reduce the harm drugs caused to families and users, and they stated it was regrettable that the UN Human Rights Office chose to gloss over the more severe harm that drug abuse had inflicted upon thousands of people and focused on the implications behind the single execution of a drug trafficker.

According to the official statements released by the MHA, it was said that the authorities were satisfied that all the conditions for issuing the correction direction were fulfilled when the activist group was given the order for spreading false information about the execution of Tangaraju.