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AFTER he left junior college at the end of 2003, he kept in touch with one of the women teachers there.
In 2006, when he was in National Service, he revealed his feelings for her.
She baulked at first because of their 10-year age gap.
But he persisted in wooing her and they got married last year.
Their relationship has driven a rift between them and his family to the extent of two police reports being lodged over alleged threats.
Mr S Yogavikaraman, 25, whose family members are conservative Hindus, said his parents were vehemently against their relationship when they found out about it in March last year.
Despite his denials, they suspected the relationship could have begun when he was still in JC.
His father, Mr M Sivasubramaniam, 51, asked the Ministry of Education (MOE) and the JC to investigate.
But MOE and the school found no evidence that Mr Yogavikaraman and his teacher were romantically involved when he was a student there.
But the parents were not pacified.
They felt that as a teacher, their son's wife had crossed the line by marrying a former student who's almost 10 years younger.
The couple claimed that they have been constantly harassed by Mr Sivasubramaniam.
Mr Yogavikaraman said: "He sent threatening SMSes to us all the time and has spewed vulgarities to me about my wife."
It got so bad that his wife filed two police reports against Mr Sivasubramaniam in April last year - the first complaining about the SMS threats and the second on Mr Sivasubramaniam obtaining her identity card number without her knowledge and permission.
When The New Paper asked Mr Sivasubramaniam about the SMSes, he didn't think he was harassing them.
Said the operations manager in a security firm: "I just want some answers and he is my son and he went behind my back to do this.
"That's why I sent them the SMSes.
"She was my son's teacher. In Singapore, we live in a society where there are values that must be upheld."
Added his wife, Madam Ratna Devi Sivasubramaniam, 50, a clerk: "She was supposed to be his mentor and then this happens."
They suspect that the relationship started when their son was in JC from 2002 to 2003.
But Mr Yogavikaraman and his wife, who turns 35 this year and still teaches at the JC, denied this.
She requested not to be named as she wants to let the matter rest.
When the couple met The New Paper on Tuesday, Mr Yogavikaraman said their relationship was purely platonic in JC.
The final-year mechanical engineering student at Nanyang Technological University said: "She was just my teacher in JC and I had no feelings for her back then.
"It would have been wrong if we started the relationship when I was 18 years old and still in school."
His wife added: "I never taught him in class. I got to know him as I was coaching him and his friends in dance competitions."
She added that she would go out with Mr Yogavikaraman and a group of other students from the JC to watch a movie from time to time.
Mr Yogavikaraman said: "We were friends and kept in touch after I left JC. But it was only in early 2006 that I told her I had feelings for her."
She rejected his advances at first due to their 10-year age gap.
She said: "I was uncomfortable at first. I thought he would be too immature."
Nothing in JC
She added that the fact that he was a former student didn't cross her mind as there was nothing going on between them in JC.
When he persisted in wooing her and assured her that it would work out, she agreed to go out with him in early 2006.
"He is very mature. He has been my pillar of strength as he didn't buckle under pressure when his family rejected me," she said.
They said they didn't date anyone else from the time Mr Yogavikaraman left JC until they started dating in 2006.
She said: "I didn't find anybody suitable and I was busy in my career. It happened naturally.
We are both consenting, mature adults and I am not the first person to marry a former student."
They decided to keep their relationship a secret from his family as Mr Yogavikaraman knew they wouldn't approve.
But in March last year, Mr Yogavikaraman's parents found out about the couple's relationship and got upset.
Mr Yogavikaraman then moved out of his family home.
Now estranged from his family, he married his wife in June last year.
Mr Sivasubramaniam's two other children - a 28-year-old son and a 24-year-old daughter - have already tied the knot, in marriages that he had arranged for them in India.
His daughter got married in July last year.
Said Mr Sivasubramaniam: "I wanted my daughter to get married as fast as possible after I found out about Vikaraman and the teacher.
"I didn't want to be embarrassed again."
Mr Yogavikaraman's wife said that in contrast, her own family has been supportive of their relationship.
"They wanted me to think about it carefully because of the age gap but they have accepted it," she said.
She said she doesn't talk about her personal life with her students.
"My personal life has nothing to do with my work. I am a ethical person who didn't do anything wrong. I just chose a different path from most people," she said.
