Man who dropped cat from 6th-floor HDB ledge pleads guilty
When Fajar Ashraf Fajar Ali left his flat one night in May last year, he was looking for cats to play with.
However, what may have started as a bit of fun ended in him dropping a cat off the sixth-floor staircase landing of a Tampines HDB block and then abusing it some more to ensure the animal was dead.
Appearing in a State Court on Monday (6 February), the 25-year-old pleaded guilty to two counts of animal abuse.
Lured cat with food
Reading from the statement of facts, Deputy Public Prosecutor (DPP) Soh Weiqi said that Fajar had left his house at around 1am on 26 May 2016.
At about 1.40am, he spotted a cat at block 884 Tampines Street 83 and managed to lure it into the lift with cat food. Fajar then took the lift to the sixth floor and brought the cat to the staircase landing.
When it later tried to escape, Fajar lured it back with more food. When the cat returned to him, however, he picked it up and dropped it over the staircase landing’s ledge.
He then went downstairs to check on the animal. Finding it alive, Fajar then slammed it on the ground twice, after which he lit it with a lighter. He left the scene only after ensuring the cat was dead.
A resident from the opposite block who heard noises and witnessed Fajar slamming the cat on the ground called the police. According to DPP Soh, Fajar was identified by the police via CCTV footage and was arrested on 31 May last year.
Fajar’s lawyer Amarjit Singh asked for an application for his client to obtain a Medical Treatment Order from the Institute of Mental Health. Singh said his client was depressed prior to the alleged acts.
Fajar’s case will be mentioned again on 6 March. For each charge he could be fined up to $15,000, jailed up to 18 months, or both.
