Indian-origin man jailed for six months in Singapore

An Indian origin man here was sentenced to six months in jail for assaulting and intimidating law enforcement officials who summoned him for smoking in an unauthorised area.

Ramasamy Soogumar, 59, on Friday admitted to the three offences for causing hurt to a police officer and criminal intimidation to a National Environment Agency (NEA) officer whose colleague had issued him a summons for smoking in a prohibted area, the Strait Times reported on Saturday.

NEA enforcement officer Gugan Santhirasakaran and his colleague Salvin Kaur Mindar Singh saw Soogumar, a cleaner, smoking a cigarette and having beer in the void deck at Hougang Avenue 8 on May 30. There was a "no smoking sign" three-metre away from where has standing, the report said.

The officials wrote up a notice for Soogumar to attend court for committing the offence. Soogumar then hurled vulgarities at officer Gugan, bumped into him using his chest and slapped him.

Sergeant Christian Tan Kai Jun, who was on a routine patrol in the area with another police official, then spotted the two NEA personnel calling for assistance.

When the officers tried to question Soogumar, he tried to assault a staff Sergeant's face but was stopped.

Pleading for leniency, the man's lawyer Harjeet Kaur told District Judge Imran Abdul Hamid that her client was in "inebriated" state at the time of the incident.

She said her client committed the offences in the spur of the moment, with no premeditation nor any intention to carry out the threat.

Soogumar had been sentenced to prison earlier also for disorderly behaviour, using abusive language and robbery with hurt. He was released in June 2016 after serving 11 years' preventive detention and caned for robbery with hurt.

--IANS

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