On the night of 10 November 1977, Usharani d/o Ganaison, a 7-year-old student of Cairnhill Primary School, went missing after she went out of her flat to buy drinks to celebrate Deepavali with her family.

Although Kalidass admitted to molesting the girl, he denied killing her intentionally and raised a defence of alcohol intoxication that caused him to be mentally incapable of his actions.

[1] On the night of 10 November 1977, at their flat in Toa Payoh, seven-year-old Usharani Ganaison, the youngest of three daughters in her family, went outside upon her 30-year-old father N Ganesan's request to buy drinks from a nearby coffee shop for their guests, who all came to celebrate Deepavali, which fell on the same day.

Professor Chao Tzee Cheng, the senior forensic pathologist, examined the body during an autopsy and he determined that the girl had been strangled, and she was sexually assaulted.

The uncle, Lance Corporal Kalidass s/o Sinnathamby Narayanasamy of the Singapore Armed Forces, was charged with murder on 14 November 1977,[4][5] and it was revealed by the police that he admitted to the molestation and killing of the victim.

[7][8][9] The case of Usharani's sexual assault and murder made headlines in Singapore newspapers and just less than a month after her death was reported, another schoolgirl Cheng Geok Ha, who was ten, went missing on 25 November 1977 before she was discovered dead in the following month, with signs of her being sexually assaulted before her death; Cheng's neighbour Quek Kee Siong was later arrested for the murder and sentenced to hang on 6 March 1979.

[13] On 18 March 1980, Kalidass Sinnathamby Narayanasamy stood trial for the charge of killing his seven-year-old niece Usharani Ganaison, with Christopher Lau representing him in court.

Although he later claimed in trial that he was tortured by the detective D. Rajoo into confessing since his identity card and driver's license happened to be discovered nearby the crime scene, Kalidass's police statement was admitted as evidence.

He also added that Kalidass was in a state of hysterical amnesia and malingering, meaning that he deliberately lied that he had no memory of the murder and pretending to be suffering from intoxication by excessive alcohol intake when killing Usharani.