6 Malaysians accused of stealing from foreign worker dormitory during circuit breaker
SINGAPORE - Six Malaysian men were charged on Wednesday (13 May) with stealing items from a foreign worker dormitory during the circuit breaker period when movement in all dormitories in Singapore was restricted.
The six are Muhamaad Shahrul Izzuddin Hamidon, 22, Rajah Muniandy, 31, Sivan Perumal, 35, Viraj Chandrasegaran, 20, Kaujaman Raja, 30, and Arumugam Rengasamy, 34.
The six each face a charge of committing theft of various items - most which are commonplace household items and electronic devices - from PPT Lodge 1B, located at Block 4 Seletar North Link, between 8 and 11 May.
It is unclear if the six had committed the offences together or individually. Rajah and Shahrul are accused of stealing the most number of items, at 30 each.
According to his charge sheet, Rajah stole a pillow, a laptop, at least 12 mobile phones, several SIM cards, resident cards and a torchlight among other things.
Shahrul allegedly stole five mobile phones, 10 hangers, six cans of coke, a bottle of green tea and several power banks and watches, among other items.
The six will return to court on 20 May for a further mention.
If convicted of theft in dwelling, each of the men can be jailed up to seven years and fined.
All foreign workers living in dormitories were ordered to stop moving in and out from 21 April, including going to work, in a bid to curb the spread of the coronavirus.
At a multi-ministry Taskforce briefing on Tuesday, National Development Minister Lawrence Wong said that the authorities were testing some 3,000 workers daily in dormitories but would ramp up testing in the coming weeks.
Over 32,000 foreign workers living in dormitories here have been tested, and 22,334 of them were confirmed as positive for COVID-19, as of Tuesday.
Dozens of clusters linked to foreign worker dorms have been identified thus far, including Singapore’s largest cluster of 2,549 cases linked to S11 Dormitory@Punggol, followed by Sungei Tengah Lodge linked to 1,320 cases, and Tuas View Dormitory linked to 1,248 cases.
The three are among the 25 dorms that have been gazetted as isolation areas and account for some 23 per cent of the total infected cases across all dorms. Some 400,000 foreign workers live in dorms here in Singapore.
Stay in the know on-the-go: Join Yahoo Singapore's Telegram channel at http://t.me/YahooSingapore
Other Singapore stories
FedEx pilot jailed for breaching Stay-Home Notice to buy masks, thermometer
COVID-19: Cases in Singapore crosses 25,000 mark with 675 new infections
Man who breached COVID-19 rules went on to abuse cop at State Courts
Dominican man charged with falsely declaring travel history to enter Supreme Court
