SINGAPORE: An Indian national here was sentenced to 30 months in jail for his role in hiding the evidence of a crime by helping his friend to dispose of his murdered wife's body.

Gursharan Singh, 27, yesterday admitted to helping compatriot Harvinder Singh evade punishment and failing to report to police the murder of latter's wife in December 2013, The Straits Times reported on Wednesday.

The court heard that Gursharan agreed to help Harvinder move "some belongings" on December 11, 2013.

Harvinder, 35, who is now on the Interpol wanted list, had packed a black canvas bag which was then moved from his rented room to a river in a nearby public housing estate.

Gursharan realised that there was a body in the bag only when he had helped Harvinder lift it near a pedestrian bridge. The bag was disposed in the Whampoa River.

Subsequently, Harvinder had told him his wife, Jasvinder Kaur, 33, had died after he had punched her on her neck during a dispute.

Harvinder had stuffed the body into the bag and wanted to dispose it "so that no one would know what he had done to her", Assistant Public Prosecutor Prakash Otharam said.

Kaur's body was found floating in the waterway on the morning of December 12.

Gursharan faced a jail sentence for up to 10 years and a fine for causing evidence of an offence to disappear.

District Judge Siva Shanmugam said Gursharan's action were intended to pervert the administration of public justice.

Even after learning that Harvinder intended to dispose of the bag with the body in it, Gursharan continued to "actively assist him", the Judge noted.

"The accused had screened Harvinder from the law knowing that he had committed murder," Shanmugam said.