HE faced a slew of charges, including rape, which would have put him behind bars for years, if convicted.
That was in 2002, and Singaporean Mohamed Saleem Mohamed Kassim was 25 then.
But the alleged rapist jumped bail and fled the country.
Then in December last year, a partially burnt body, believed to be Saleem's, was found in a forest in Yogyakarta, Indonesia.
It is understood that the victim had also been stabbed a number of times.
ARREST
The Indonesian police have arrested a man and are expected to charge him with murder.
Saleem had taken on another name in Indonesia, and it took the police almost a month to establish his real identity and inform his family here.
His brother, who flew to Indonesia, later identified the body as Saleem's.
Saleem's brother told The New Paper: 'We saw the photos. The dead man is my brother. We can't be wrong. I don't know why his name is different.'
Inspector Arjun Komisaris Sudirman told The New Paper from Yogyakarta that the body was found in a forest in Magelang, a town about 40km north-west of Yogyakarta, last 17 Dec.
A passerby, who was on his way to the market, had stumbled upon it and called the police.
The police found an address among his belongings beside his body.
It led them to a car workshop. The owner identified Saleem in a photo and gave the police his home address.
It's not known what their relationship was.
The police went to his apartment in Yogyakarta and found a handphone.
But they could not access its phone book immediately as the phone was locked.
Inspector Arjun said they had to take the phone to the service provider, Indosat, and ask it to break the code.
'There were more than 200 numbers in the phone,' the inspector said in Bahasa Indonesia.
'We don't know much about him except that he teaches in a night class,' he added.
The police went through the tedious process of contacting all the people listed in the phone book.
By then, it was already January. Saleem's body was buried on 2 Jan.
Meanwhile, his family in Singapore was still unaware of his death.
Finally, on 4 Jan, Saleem's brother, who declined to be named, received a phone call from the Yogyakarta police.
He said: 'When the man first called me, he said something about a man named Romy who was dead. I hung up as I didn't know what he was talking about.'
Then the police called again.
This time, the brother sensed something was wrong and asked for more details.
The police said that the dead man's name was Mohamed Daniel Romy.
It was then he realised that the police could be talking about his brother.
'We have never heard from Saleem since he disappeared.
'But I suspected that he was in Indonesia because I received a message from an Indonesian number a year ago.'
He added: 'The message read, 'Happy New Year, brother.' '
'It was then that I suspected Saleem was in Indonesia but I ignored it because I was angry with him for running away.'
The New Paper understands that the family had sold their flat then to raise money for the $100,000 bail.
But his brother refused to comment on that as 'it's all in the past'.
The next day, five of the family members flew to Yogyakarta where they identified the body from police photos.
'We were upset because we didn't even get to see his body,' the brother said.
Inspector Arjun said that an Indonesian man had been arrested in connection with Saleem's death.
'The hearing date is not set yet but he will probably be charged with murder and the maximum penalty is 20 years' jail,' the inspector said.
Saleem was slapped with 13 charges on 22 Aug 2002.
They included having sex with an underaged girl, wrongful confinement and criminal intimidation.
He was offered bail on 24 Oct and was released after his family posted bail the next day.
INQUIRY
A preliminary inquiry was scheduled for 8 Apr 2003 at the High Court.
But he did not turn up and the High Court issued a warrant of arrest against him.
But by then, he had left Singapore.
His family say they just want to 'close the episode'.
A relative in Malaysia is helping them to liaise with the Indonesian police for updates on the case.
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