Sixth Indian jailed in Singapore riots case

A sixth Indian national has been jailed for his role in the Dec 8 riots here in which mobs indulged in vandalism after a private bus ran over another Indian.

Krishnan Saravanan, 31, was convicted of the amended charge of failing to disperse despite being lawfully commanded to do so and jailed for 18 weeks, the Straits Times reported Tuesday.

He is the sixth Indian to plead guilty in the case.

He had faced a rioting charge, which carried a maximum sentence of seven years in prison and caning.

His sentence was back-dated to the date of his arrest Dec 9 last year, the report said.

Five others were sentenced under the same amended charge to serve between 15 and 18 weeks in jail in the last two months.

Cases against the remaining 19 charged with rioting are pending in court.

The riots started at the junction of Race Course Road and Hampshire Road in Little India area here around 9.20 p.m. Dec 8 when a private bus knocked down and killed an Indian construction worker, Sakthivel Kumaravelu, 33.

About 400 people attacked the bus and police and rescue vehicles for two hours before riot police brought the situation under control.