Trials of Ram Puneet Tiwary

On 15 September 2003, two Singaporean students and flatmates Tay Chow Lyang (郑潮亮) (b. 1977–d. 15 September 2003) and Tony Tan Poh Chuan (陈宝川) were found brutally murdered in their flat in Sydney. The boys' fellow classmate and friend Ram Puneet Tiwary (born 1979), also a Singaporean, was accused of these two violent murders. The case, dubbed the "Sydney double murders" in media, made headlines in both Singapore and Australia.

Three years after the murders, Tiwary was convicted for the murders of Tan and Tay, and received a sentence of life without parole for the murders. After filing an appeal, a re-trial was ordered and conducted in 2009 for Tiwary, who was once again found guilty in the second trial and received a sentence of 48 years' imprisonment. After the higher courts of Australia reviewed the case, Tiwary was finally acquitted upon his second appeal and freed nine years after the murders. The murders remain unsolved and no new suspects have been identified.

Murder On 15 September 2003, two Singaporeans – 26-year-old Tay Chow Lyang and 27-year-old Tony Tan Poh Chuan – were found murdered in their flat in Sydney, Australia. Tay had been bludgeoned to death and Tan was murdered when he returned from a university lecture. The victims' 24-year-old flatmate and fellow Singaporean, Ram Puneet Tiwary, who happened to be asleep in his room at the time of the murders, was awakened by sounds of violence. He locked himself in his room and called the ambulance and police upon seeing his flatmates' bodies. Tiwary, together with both Tay and Tan, attended the same class at the University of New South Wales (UNSW) at that time for an engineering course on an army scholarship.

Trials, appeals and acquittal Initially a police witness, Tiwary was charged with murder nine months later, on 28 May 2004. The prosecution alleged that Tiwary may have possible motives to commit the crime. He was sentenced to life imprisonment without parole for Tan's murder while receiving a concurrent 25 years' imprisonment for Tay's murder in 2006. In his memoir, Tiwary posited a possibility that racism could have been behind his guilty verdict. During his period of imprisonment, fights with other inmates left him with a partial loss of sensation in his right thumb and a scarred left shoulder.

Aftermath After his acquittal, Tiwary was detained at Villawood Immigration Detention Centre for six weeks while prosecutors decided whether there were grounds to appeal the acquittal. He was also waiting for his new Singaporean passport to be made by the Singapore High Commission in Canberra, Australia in order to leave Australia. On 19 September 2012, Tiwary once again stepped onto Singaporean soil. He declined to speak to reporters out of respect for the bereaved families of his two dead flatmates. It was published in September 2014. It is mentioned in an article that Tiwary had made a trip around the world after his return to Singapore, and did not complete the mechanical engineering degree from Sydney. Other than that, Tiwary did not make any further comments about his private life. Even till then, he still struggles with his trauma from the events that occurred from the murders to the 8 years of incarceration.

The case was made into a documentary by Channel NewsAsia (CNA) but Tiwary and his family declined to appear on screen. Tony Tan's parents Mr Tan Wee Sea and Mdm Chiew Lee Hua, and his sister Tan Poh Lin, were approached to talk about their feelings regarding the case, while Tay's family remains uncontactable.

The murderer(s) of Tay and Tan were not found.