Ah nehs...

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Man fined $7k for hurling vulgarities at TTSH doctor, police officers while drunk​

Nadine Chua

Sep 18, 2024

SINGAPORE – A man who hurled vulgarities at a security officer, police officers and a doctor who was treating him at a hospital was sentenced on Sept 18.
Mohanarajan Mohan, 30, was fined $7,000 after pleading guilty to two charges under the Protection from Harassment Act.
State Prosecuting Officer A. Majeed Yosuff said that on April 14, Mohanarajan was taken to Tan Tock Seng Hospital in an unconscious state.
As he was being examined by a doctor at the hospital’s accident and emergency (A&E) department, he woke up.
The prosecutor said Mohanarajan, who was drunk, insisted on being discharged and began verbally abusing the doctor and the staff.
When an auxiliary police officer arrived and tried to calm him down, Mohanarajan shouted vulgarities at him too.
As Mohanarajan was escorted out of the A&E department, he continued yelling at the auxiliary police officer.

Outside, two police officers who were called to the scene approached Mohanarajan to speak to him.
However, he shouted vulgarities at one of the officers and said: “By law, I am not inside the hospital, right? Can you guys leave me alone?”
When more police officers arrived, he verbally abused them too and was subsequently arrested.

While in the police car, he continued to verbally abuse the officers, and kicked the interior of the vehicle repeatedly despite being told not to, said the prosecutor.
In mitigation, Mohanarajan, who was unrepresented, said he was going through a divorce at the time of his offences, and was stressed and depressed.
“I am very remorseful for what I did, and I do not want to repeat these offences because I respect Singapore’s law and regulations,” he said.
He sought leniency from the judge, adding that he is attending counselling sessions as well as pursuing a diploma.

In sentencing, District Judge Sandra Looi told Mohanarajan: “I am heartened to hear that you are pursuing education and are determined to never be in a similar state as you are in today again.”
She added: “We seek your and our community’s understanding that our public service officers who serve our society deserve our utmost respect. That I am sure we all will agree.”
Between 2018 and 2022, there were 315 police reports of abuse or harassment of public healthcare workers who were on duty.
Ninety-nine police reports were made in 2022, an increase from the 71 reports filed in 2021.
To curb such abuse, a standardised framework aimed at protecting healthcare workers from abuse and harassment was launched in December 2023.
The framework includes a common definition of abuse and harassment, standardised protocols for response and measures that can be taken against abusers.
At the launch of this framework, Health Minister Ong Ye Kung said that medical staff should not be expected to tolerate abuse.
He added that while the vast majority of patients and their next of kin are respectful to and appreciative of healthcare workers, there is a small minority who resort to words and actions that are abusive.

 

[k1976]

 

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S$400 fine for construction worker caught on camera defecating at MBS entrance​

Lim Li Ting/TODAY
Ramu Chinnarasa arriving at the State Courts on Sept 19, 2024.

• A 37-year-old construction worker was fined S$400 for defecating at the entrance of Marina Bay Sands
• Ramu Chinnarasa pleaded guilty to a charge under the Environmental Public Health (Public Cleansing) Regulations
• He had been gambling at the Marina Bay Sands casino while drunk
• Unable to navigate to a toilet, he relieved himself on the floor near the building's entrance

By

Loraine Lee​

Published September 19, 2024

SINGAPORE — A 37-year-old construction worker was fined S$400 on Thursday (Sept 19) for defecating at the entrance of The Shoppes mall at Marina Bay Sands last year.
Appearing in court, Ramu Chinnarasa who is from India pleaded guilty to one charge under the Environmental Public Health (Public Cleansing) Regulations.
An image of him committing the act went viral on Facebook last October, garnering more than 1,500 likes, 1,700 comments and 4,700 shares in about two days.
Deputy Public Prosecutor (DPP) Adelle Tai said that the incident took place on Oct 30 last year.
Before that, Ramu had drunk three bottles of hard liquor and was gambling inside the Marina Bay Sands casino.

At about 5am, he left the casino. He wanted to relieve himself but could not go to the toilet because he was still heavily intoxicated.
So outside a restaurant near the entrance of Marina Bay Sands at 7.01am, Ramu took off his pants, squatted and defecated on the floor.
He then left the building and slept on one of the stone benches outside Marina Bay Sands until about 11am, before returning to his dormitory in Kranji.
DPP Tai said that a security officer at Marina Bay Sands saw a post containing a video of Ramu defecating later that day and made a police report.
The prosecution told the court that Ramu left Singapore on Oct 31 last year and returned "sometime later".
On June 4 this year, he tried to enter the same casino and was detected as an "undesirable guest". A police report was made and he was arrested.

Ramu asked the court for "the lowest fine".
In response, District Judge Christopher Goh Eng Chiang said: "Do you know how to get the lowest fine? Don't do this in public.
"Better still, don't get yourself so drunk that this happens. I want you to know if this happens again — I hope not — the fine will be higher than today."
DPP Kiera Yu called for a fine of S$400 to S$500, noting that Ramu had defecated in public for about 10 minutes.
"The offender did not make any attempts to clean up after himself, nor did he inform any cleaners of the act.
"If not for the fact that his offence was filmed by a member of the public and subsequently discovered by the MBS security team, the offender’s faeces would be left in the open for an extended period of time, in a public shopping mall with heavy foot traffic," DPP Yu added.

She also said that the damage to public cleanliness was "significant".
Any person found guilty of defecating in a public place that is not a sanitary convenience for such purpose can be fined up to S$1,000 for the first offence, and to a further fine of up to S$100 for every day the offence continues after conviction.

 

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Is 9 weeks' jail adequate?
A lot of ah nehs will gladly do 9 weeks for $25,000.

9 weeks’ jail for man who failed to return $25k wrongly deposited into his bank account​

Shaffiq Alkhatib
Court Correspondent

Oct 14, 2024

SINGAPORE - A man has been sentenced to nine weeks’ jail after he failed to return $25,000 mistakenly transferred to his bank account, despite knowing the money did not belong to him.
He said he used the money to pay off his debts and remitted some of it to his family in India.
On Oct 14, Periyasamy Mathiyazhagan, a 47-year-old Indian national, pleaded guilty to misappropriating the money.
He worked for a plumbing and engineering firm from 2021 to 2022.
His legal woes started on April 6, 2023, when an administrator at the firm transferred the $25,000 to his bank account, which she had thought was the company’s account.
Court documents referred to her as the complainant in the case.
State Prosecuting Officer (SPO) Lim Yeow Leong told the court the woman had taken a personal loan from the company and wanted to pay it off.

“After making the erroneous transfer, the complainant was informed by (a director at the firm) on the same day that the account did not belong to the company, and the company did not receive the cash,” the SPO said.
The woman then told Periyasamy’s bank about the erroneous transfer and sought its help to recover the money.
On April 10, 2023, the bank sent a letter addressed to him, stating that the woman had made a request for the cash to be returned.

But the letter was sent to the company instead as it was identified as Periyasamy’s last known address in the bank’s records.
On May 9 that year, it informed her by another letter that her request for the cash to be returned was unsuccessful.
She then lodged a police report on May 23.
Investigations revealed that Periyasamy discovered earlier that month that the money had been deposited into his bank account.
The SPO said that the offender was not expecting to receive such a large sum of cash and knew that it did not belong to him.
Despite this, he transferred the $25,000 to another bank account over four separate transactions on May 11 and 12.
Some time at the end of the month, administrative staff at the company noticed that the bank’s letter addressed to Periyasamy had been sent to the firm instead.
The firm’s director called him to the firm, handed him the letter, and asked him to return the $25,000.
Periyasamy replied that he had used up the amount to pay off his debts.
In a police interview in November 2023, he told officers that he had also remitted a portion of the money to his family in India.
He requested for more time to return the cash to the woman and proposed a monthly repayment of $1,500.
To date, the money has not been recovered, and he has made no restitution.

 

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Man tried to rape drunk woman after she was allegedly raped by his friend under Tuas Viaduct​

The victim was led to a field under the Tuas Viaduct. PHOTO: SHIN MIN DAILY NEWS

Selina Lum
Senior Law Correspondent

Oct 18, 2024

SINGAPORE – Two foreign workers who were taking the last train back to their dormitory encountered a heavily intoxicated woman during their journey, and decided to bring her along with them after the train stopped at Tuas West Road station.
One man, Alam Foysal, 38, guided the woman out of the train, then led her from the station to a grass field under the Tuas Viaduct, where he allegedly raped her.
The other man, Ahmed Rayhan, 32, followed closely behind Foysal and the victim. He tried to rape the victim, but gave up after a few tries.
The 32-year-old victim was eventually found by a passer-by on his way to work the next morning.
Foysal and Rayhan, who are Bangladeshi nationals, were arrested on the same day, after the police established their identities from surveillance camera footage.
On Oct 18, Rayhan was sentenced to nine years’ jail and nine strokes of the cane after he pleaded guilty to a charge of attempted rape.
Two other charges related to the same victim, one for sexual assault by penetration and one for outrage of modesty, were taken into consideration during sentencing.

Foysal’s case is still pending in court.
The incident took place between 12.30 am and 2.20 am on March 8, 2022.
Deputy Public Prosecutor Michelle Tay told the High Court that both men worked as welders on the same construction-related project, and stayed in the same dormitory.

On the evening of March 7, 2022, the two men met a mutual friend for drinks.
It was just past midnight when Foysal and Rayhan boarded a train at Chinese Garden MRT station to return to their dormitory.
During the journey, they noticed the victim who was in the train carriage next to theirs.
She was heavily intoxicated and behaving erratically – walking up and down the aisle, sitting on the floor and then standing up.
The two men approached her and tried to strike up a conversation, but she was incoherent and did not respond to their questions.

When the train arrived at Tuas West Road station at about 12.30am, they decided to take her with them.
Foysal supported the victim and guided her out of the train carriage. He then led her down the escalator to the gantry, as Rayhan followed closely behind them.
At the gantry, the victim struggled to tap out, attracting the attention of the staff.
Foysal told the staff that he and Rahyan had met the victim in the train, that she lives nearby and that they were taking her home.
After the woman exited the gantry, Foysal held her wrist and led her to a grass field in the vicinity of the station, underneath Tuas Viaduct.
He then stopped at a dark area and set the victim down on the ground, next to a large concrete structural pillar.
The prosecutor said Rayhan then realised that Foysal intended to have sex with the victim there.
While Foysal was unzipping his trousers, Rayhan molested and sexually violated the woman.
The prosecutor said that after witnessing Foysal rape the victim, Rayhan decided to do the same. But he was unable to do so and gave up after trying for some time.
Following Rayhan’s failed attempt, Foysal raped the woman a second time, said the prosecutor.
The two men subsequently took a taxi back to their dormitory.
At about 7.10am, a Chinese national cycling past the field spotted the victim curled up on the ground, partially undressed and bleeding from the head. He called the police.

Rayhan was arrested at 6.20pm, while Foysal was arrested at 7.05pm, on that same day.
The prosecutor said Foysal’s semen was found on multiple swabs taken from the victim’s body.
Foysal’s DNA was found on swabs taken from the victim’s underwear, while the victim’s DNA was found on the interior of Rayhan’s jeans.
Rayhan was initially charged with rape. This was amended to attempted rape after the charges against him were finalised on Aug 16, 2023, the court was told.
The prosecutor sought eight to 10 years’ jail and six strokes of the cane, saying that Rayhan knew the victim did not have the capacity to consent to sexual acts and took advantage of her vulnerable state.
Rayhan’s lawyer, Mr Mahadevan Lukshumayeh, said his client “made the biggest mistake of his life” when he succumbed to temptation after seeing what was happening before his eyes.

 

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Jail for man who used corporate credit card to make nearly $30k in unauthorised transactions​

Raul Randhawa pleaded guilty to one count of criminal breach of trust and was sentenced to four months’ jail on Oct 30. ST PHOTO: KELVIN CHNG

Shaffiq Alkhatib
Court Correspondent

Oct 30, 2024

SINGAPORE – A risk and controls officer with an insurance firm, who earned more than $11,000 a month used its corporate credit card to make 27 unauthorised transactions involving $29,674 in total.
Raul Randhawa, a 44-year-old Singaporean, pleaded guilty to one count of criminal breach of trust and was sentenced to four months’ jail on Oct 30, 2024.
He has since made full restitution.
Raul was working for AIG Apac when he signed a form stating that he should use the Citibank card only for company-related business.
The form also stated that should he use the card to pay for his personal expenses, he must settle the payments directly with Citibank within seven days and notify AIG Apac.
Despite this, he later stated that he had never been issued a corporate credit card.
Deputy Public Prosecutor Gabriel Lee told the court: “The accused stated that he owed some friends money as he had been spending more than what he had been earning.

“This was since he had been flying to Jakarta from July 2023 to October 2023 to party with his friends.”
According to court documents, Raul started working as a risk and controls officer with the firm in August 2020, and his roles included implementing information technology policies.
He was entrusted with the card, which had a $30,000 credit limit.

On Oct 25, 2023, Raul tendered his resignation, which was accepted five days later. He was then told to return all company property.
The prosecutor said: “The accused indicated in his exit clearance form that he had never been issued with a corporate credit card. When questioned, the accused reiterated that he had never been issued with (such a) card. “
Raul acknowledged that he had been issued the credit card only after he was shown documents from the firm’s human resource department about the matter.
He then stated that he would return the card on Nov 6, 2023. The company cancelled it on Nov 3, 2023.
But four days later, the firm found out that the card had been used to make 27 unauthorised transactions involving the $29,674.

Citibank told AIG Apac that Raul had approved the transactions himself, and that these were reflected in the SMSes sent to his mobile device.
He was no longer an AIG Apac employee by Nov 7, 2023, when he tried to apply to increase the card’s credit limit to $50,000.
The request was not approved as AIG Apac had earlier cancelled the card.
Raul also made changes to the card’s mailing address – from AIG Apac’s location to his home – even though he was not authorised to do so.
His bail was set at $10,000 on Oct 30, and is expected to begin serving his sentence on Nov 13.

 

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More jail time for inmate who slashed fellow prisoner’s face with improvised weapon​

Shaffiq Alkhatib
Court Correspondent

Nov 01, 2024

SINGAPORE – A recalcitrant offender was serving his sentence in Changi Prison for offences including armed robbery when he used an improvised bladed weapon to slash another inmate, causing a permanent facial injury.
For his latest offence, Karrtik Stalniraj was sentenced to three years and two months’ jail and four strokes of the cane on Nov 1.
He will start serving this sentence after completing his earlier one of five years, eight months and five weeks in jail, 12 strokes of the cane and a fine of $3,000.
That sentence was handed down on May 23, 2022, for offences including being part of a group that robbed a licensed Jurong East moneylender of $48,000 while armed with knives in November 2020.
In the latest case, the 25-year-old Singaporean pleaded guilty to one count of using a weapon to cause grievous hurt to his fellow inmate in December 2022.
Defence lawyer Wee Hong Shern said that there were altercations between his client and the victim before the assault on Dec 13, 2022.
The lawyer said that the victim was overseeing laundry duties when Karrtik found that his white shirt had been discoloured blue after washing.

Mr Wee told the court: “This was against the procedure, as shirts and pants needed to be washed separately. Our client knew that (the victim) was either negligent or lazy in having his shirt washed together with his pants.”
According to court documents, Karrtik told his officer about the discoloured shirt but did not mention anything that could place blame on the victim.
But on Sept 4, 2022, the victim confronted Karrtik and demanded to know why he had complained to the officer about his clothes, said Mr Wee.

The court heard that the victim then challenged Karrtik to a fight before an officer stepped in.
In early December 2022, Karrtik was having an interview with his parents in a room when the victim disturbed him three times with acts including leering at his parents, said Mr Wee.
The lawyer added: “Our client was angry and upset as (the victim) had meaninglessly caused his parents to feel unsafe and worried… Without closure, our client’s resentment began to fester.”

Things came to a head when Karrtik spotted the victim shortly before 2.30pm on Dec 13, 2022.
Deputy Public Prosecutor Yee Jia Rong told the court: “Holding the improvised blade in his hand, the accused walked up to the victim from behind and tapped him on the shoulder.
“When the victim turned around, the accused slashed at the victim’s face with the blade… The blade cut the victim’s skin on his left cheek and drew blood. Thereafter, the accused ran away before being restrained by… enforcement officers.”
After the attack, the victim went to Changi General Hospital’s Accident and Emergency Department, where he was found with a 15cm-long wound on the left side of his face.
The prosecution also said that Karrtik had committed multiple offences including theft since 2014, before he was dealt with in court in 2022 for being part of the armed robbery.

 

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Jail for man who lied to High Court judge, assaulted own mother in separate incidents​

Shaffiq Alkhatib
Court Correspondent

Nov 08, 2024

SINGAPORE - A paralegal lied to a High Court judge that a lawyer he was working for could not attend a court hearing because the lawyer was at a clinic.
In fact, both the lawyer and the paralegal were together in the latter’s flat at the time.
Prem Kumar Rasapa, who was then a paralegal, attended the hearing in February 2022 via video-conferencing and sought a four-week adjournment for a case involving several inmates who were on death row.
On Nov 8, the 38-year-old Singaporean man was sentenced to six months and six weeks’ jail after he pleaded guilty to multiple charges, including giving false information to a public servant.
Three of the charges were for assault. In unrelated incidents, Prem assaulted several people, including his own mother, in 2023.
Deputy Public Prosecutor Phoebe Tan said that in 2022, Ms L.F. Violet Netto was the lawyer for several death row inmates who were earlier convicted of drug trafficking.
Without revealing details, DPP Tan said that the inmates’ case involved their third application to set aside their death sentences.

She added that Ms Netto did not turn up for a High Court hearing over the case on Feb 17, 2022.
The prosecutor said that Prem then attended the proceedings remotely through video-conferencing and lied to Justice Kannan Ramesh that Ms Netto was at a clinic.
DPP Tan said: “He informed Justice Ramesh on at least three occasions that Ms Netto had Covid-19, when this was untrue and he had no basis to think she had.

“The accused repeatedly (said) that he was a paralegal who could not address the court, and sought a four-week adjournment... Although the accused’s lie was eventually discovered that day, the hearing was still adjourned to Feb 28, 2022.”
Court documents stated that the police later confronted Prem over his lies, but he still insisted that he was being truthful during the hearing.
Ms Netto died in October 2024.
In an unrelated incident that took place in January 2023, Prem shoved his brother’s 71-year-old friend, causing the senior citizen to fall backwards. The victim was later found with multiple injuries including fractures to his spine.
Court documents did not disclose the reasons behind this assault.
A month after he pushed the elderly man, Prem was at Sengkang General Hospital for undisclosed reasons when he punched a female staff nurse’s left arm as she was about to pass him his medication.
In April that year, his 60-year-old mother, who did not live with him, went to his home and reminded him to go for his follow-up appointment at the Institute of Mental Health (IMH), where he was receiving treatment for alcohol use disorder.
Prem refused to go there and instead, asked his mother for money to buy alcohol.
The woman then left the flat and Prem followed her out.
When the pair were travelling to IMH in a taxi, he punched his mother’s cheek once.
He also flung a padlock at her but she managed to dodge it. The padlock struck items including the front windscreen of the taxi, causing more than $2,400 in damages.
In August 2023, Prem went to Tan Tock Seng Hospital for reasons not stated in court documents.
A female staff member who was handling his registration asked him some questions, but he failed to respond.
“The accused suddenly jumped out from his trolley bed, took a wrist tag printing machine and threw it towards the victim’s direction”, DPP Tan said.
“The victim jumped out of the way and fortuitously dodged the machine.”
Prem also abused the female employee with vulgar language, the court heard.
Court documents did not state what happened next but he was later arrested on April 3, 2024.

 

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Jail, caning for man who raped masseuse after refusing to leave Geylang massage parlour​

Selina Lum
Senior Law Correspondent

Nov 11, 2024

SINGAPORE - A construction worker who did not have money to pay for a massage refused to leave a Geylang parlour when told to do so, and turned violent to get the masseuse to submit to him.
He straddled the woman across her chest, choked her with both his hands and slapped her multiple times before he forced her to perform a sex act on him.
On Nov 11, Prodhan Sajib, a 27-year-old Bangladeshi national, was sentenced to 10 years in jail and six strokes of the cane after he pleaded guilty to raping the 32-year-old victim, a Chinese national.
Two other charges – a second count of rape and a count of criminal trespass – were taken into consideration in sentencing.
The offences took place on the morning of May 18, 2022.
Deputy Public Prosecutor Maximilian Chew told the High Court that at about 7.35am that day, Sajib arrived for work at a construction site in Geylang but left shortly after to buy some groceries.
At about 7.55am, the victim was sleeping in the massage parlour when she heard the doorbell. She saw Sajib standing outside and opened the glass door to let him in.

After Sajib indicated that he wanted a massage, the masseuse told him how much it would cost, but he did not have enough cash in his wallet to pay for it.
He then took out his bank card and gestured to the victim to swipe the card on the payment machine.
However, he refused to hand over his card, so the woman told him to leave. But Sajib refused to do so and locked the glass door instead.

He lifted the victim onto his shoulder and threw her on the massage bed located farthest away from the door, as she struggled and shouted for help.
He then straddled her and tried to strangle her, before pressing a towel over her face to stop her from shouting.
After a while, he removed the towel and placed his finger to his lips to gesture to the victim to keep quiet. He also made a swiping gesture across his neck, and made a stabbing motion.
DPP Chew said the victim became quiet as she was fearful that the man would kill her if she kept shouting.
While Sajib was undressing the victim, she pushed him away and made a run for it, but he caught up with her.
He pinned her to the floor, choked her and repeatedly slapped her, before he forced her to perform oral sex on him.

After the rape, the victim tried to run out of the shop, but Sajib pulled her back in.
She held on to the leg of one of the massage beds and grabbed her mobile phone, which was on the bed. When Sajib saw this, he tussled with her for the phone.
The woman eventually broke free and ran out of the shop with her phone.
As she stood outside trying to call for help, Sajib came out of the shop and continued trying to snatch the phone from her.
After failing to grab her phone, Sajib opened the door and gestured to the victim to return to the shop.
She hurried back into the shop and closed the door, and Sajib left the scene.
The victim made a police report in the early hours of May 19, 2022.
Later that day, the police arrested Sajib at his workplace, after identifying him from surveillance video footage.
While he was remanded in custody, Sajib told a psychiatrist that he had been taking sex enhancement medication for about two months prior to the incident.
DPP April Phang sought 10 to 11 years’ jail and eight strokes of the cane, highlighting that the use of excessive violence to commit the rape was an aggravating factor.

 

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Man jailed for attacking his father, and molesting woman, in separate incidents​

Shaffiq Alkhatib
Dec 20, 2024

SINGAPORE – A man who rained blows on his father continued the assault despite knowing that police officers were waiting to be let into their flat at around 3am on May 10.

Officers arrested Arjune Ravi later that morning and his 64-year-old father was taken to hospital where he was found with multiple injuries including a nasal fracture.

In an unrelated incident, Arjune molested a 24-year-old woman in Little India in November 2023.


On Dec 20, the 25-year-old was sentenced to a year, five months and six weeks’ jail. He pleaded guilty to one count each of assault and molestation.

Deputy Public Prosecutor Zhou Yang told the court that Arjune was in Buffalo Road at around 9pm on Nov 10, 2023 when he molested a woman and walked away.

The DPP added: “Although the victim was afraid, she shouted at the accused to stop. The accused ignored her and continued walking away.”

She managed to record a video and snap pictures of Arjune before she lost sight of him.

After she provided the police with the evidence, officers managed to trace him.

Court documents did not disclose what happened next but Arjune was in his Admiralty Drive Housing Board flat on May 10, 2024 when he phoned his father even though the latter was in the same unit.


The father went to Arjune’s room but he was not allowed inside. Arjune started complaining about his mother and asked for his father’s mobile phone.

The older man refused to hand it over. At around 2.30am, Arjune rained blows on his father who alerted the police about 30 minutes later.

Police officers and paramedics arrived outside the unit but did not see the father. When he answered a call from a police officer on his mobile phone, he said he was afraid to leave his room as Arjune would assault him.

DPP Zhou said: “ When the victim came out of his room, he found the accused waiting for him in the living room. The accused punched the victim’s body which caused the victim to fall on the floor.

“The accused continued kicking the victim’s body while the victim was on the floor... The accused knew that police officers were waiting outside the flat.”

Without revealing details, the prosecutor told the court that police managed to enter the flat at around 4.30am and arrested Arjune.

His father was taken to Khoo Teck Puat Hospital and discharged on May 28.

​

 

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Jail for man over assault on rival gang member, who died in fatal Orchard Road brawl​

The brawl happened at around 6am on Aug 20, 2023, outside Concorde Hotel and Shopping Mall.PHOTO: SHIN MIN DAILY NEWS

Christine Tan
Dec 20, 2024

SINGAPORE – A recalcitrant offender previously jailed for hurting others is back behind bars for assaulting a rival secret society member in a fatal brawl in Orchard Road in August 2023.

Visnu Suriamurthi, 28, was sentenced to six weeks’ jail on Dec 20, 2024, after he pleaded guilty to one count of voluntarily causing hurt to Mr Mohammad Isrrat Mohd Ismail.

He was also fined $2,000 after admitting to a separate illegal gambling offence.


Mr Isrrat, 29, was later stabbed to death by one of Visnu’s gang members in the brawl, which happened at around 6am on Aug 20, 2023, outside Concorde Hotel and Shopping Mall.

Visnu was sent to jail twice in 2022 for voluntarily causing hurt, a record which District Judge Ong Luan Tze took into account during sentencing.

Judge Ong told Visnu: “You are still young... take some time to think about how you want your future to pan out, and after this case, to seriously consider not coming back to court.”

Deputy Public Prosecutor Kathy Chu said Visnu and eight other men involved in the brawl were from related secret society groups.

Before the brawl, the group – along with other friends – headed to several clubs, shared bottles of alcohol and became intoxicated.

Between 3.36am and 4.42am, the group arrived at Club Rumours at Concorde Hotel and Shopping Mall. They were denied entry to the club as they had been permanently banned after injuring the club’s owner in a 2019 fight.


At that time, Mr Isrrat and his friend, Muhammad Shahrulnizam Osman, 30, had also arrived at the club, where they used to work as bouncers. They were members of another secret society that was a rival to Visnu’s gang.

Mr Isrrat wanted to pass his wedding invitation card to the staff at the club.

When the club’s chief bouncer alerted other bouncers to the presence of Visnu and his gang, some of them, along with Shahrulnizam and Mr Isrrat, armed themselves with knives.

At about 6am, as the club was closing, Mr Isrrat suddenly started shouting abusive words at Visnu’s group. A fight subsequently broke out.

Shahrulnizam and Mr Isrrat left the hotel while being chased by members of Visnu’s group. One of them, Sharvin Jay Nair, 26, punched and kicked Mr Isrrat, while Visnu punched him at least twice.

This caused Mr Isrrat to suffer bruises on his forearms, temples and neck, said DPP Chu.

Shahrulnizam then used a bread knife to slash Sharvin’s elbow and Visnu’s neck, forehead and chest. He also slashed another member from Visnu’s group, Abdul Rahman Gani Abdul Azeez, 34, on his hand.

Mr Isrrat and Shahrulnizam then ran back to Concorde Hotel. A member of Visnu’s group, Asvain Pachan Pillai Sukumaran, then allegedly took Mr Isrrat’s knife and stabbed him multiple times with it.

Asvain, 30, has been charged with Mr Isrrat’s murder. His case is still before the courts.

Visnu admitted himself to a hospital to seek treatment and was arrested by police at the premises.

Visnu’s lawyer Kalidass Murugaiyan said in mitigation that Mr Isrrat and Shahrulnizam were armed at the time and had injured his client.

“It doesn’t justify what he has done, but... this is not an unprovoked attack (on) an unarmed person at the time,” said the lawyer of Visnu’s assault on Mr Isrrat.

So far, more than 10 men have been hauled to court for their roles in the fatal brawl.

On Dec 4, Shahrulnizam was sentenced to two years and nine months’ jail and 12 strokes of the cane, after he pleaded guilty to voluntarily causing hurt with a dangerous weapon and abetting Mr Isrrat to possess an offensive weapon.