Indian-Origin Man Sentenced Six Months Imprisonment In Singapore:- A Singapore court has sentenced an Indian-origin man for six months and four weeks imprisonment for assaulting and threatening law enforcement officials who summoned him for smoking in a prohibited area.

The accused identified as Ramasamy Soogumar (59) admitted in a court on Friday, to three offences. The offences include for causing hurt to a police officer and a National Environment Agency (NEA) officer whose colleague had summoned him for smoking in an unauthorized area, reported a leading news channel.

It was in June last year, that Soogumar was sentenced a 11-year, 12-stroke for robbery with hurt, and now he has got into trouble with the law again. Soogumar works as a cleaner in a school. According to reports, the man smoking a cigarette while drinking beer was witnessed by NEA enforcement officer Gugan Santhirasakaran (24), and his colleague Salvin Kaur Mindar Singh (23). The incident occurred in the void deck of Apartment Block 676, Hougang Avenue 8, at 7.05 PM (local time) on May 30 this year.

There was a “no smoking sign” 3-metre away from where he was has standing, it said. The officials wrote up a notice for Soogumar to attend court for committing the offence. Soogumar then hurled vulgarities at Gugan in Tamil and bumped into him using his chest and slapped him. Then, the the two NEA personnel calling for assistance was spotted by Sergeant Christian Tan Kai Jun, who was on a routine patrol in the area with another police official. Deputy Public Prosecutor Sarah Shi said that the cleaner tried to leave, when the two police officers tried to question Soogumar. In the presence of police officers, he then repeatedly tried to confront Gugan. They stopped him and told him to sit. Staff Sergeant Lionel Tan Wei Ming’s face was also tried to be assaulted by the Indian-origin man, but was however, stopped.

Undeterred, he then tried to move towards Gugan and when Sergeant Christian Tan tried to stop him, he slapped the police official’s hand away. Soogumar threatened Gugan in Tamil by saying “You watch out. I will deal with you” and that he would “die” at his hands.

The man’s lawyer, Harjeet Kaur, pleading for leniency told District Judge Imran Abdul Hamid that her client uttered the words because of him being in an inebriated state. Earlier, he was sentenced to imprisonment after conviction for disorderly behavior, using abusive language and robbery with hurt.

SUPRAJA