Trio sentenced over scuffle with police during 2015 Thaipusam procession
Three Singaporean men who scuffled with police officers during the 2015 Thaipusam procession were sentenced in the State Courts on Thursday (15 March).
Following a 14-day-trial, the trio were convicted in February on charges of disorderly behaviour, making religiously insensitive remarks and verbally abusing police officers.
Ramachandra Chandramohan, 35, who was also convicted on charges of voluntarily causing hurt to the police officers, was jailed for a year and one week. He was also fined $8,000.
Gunasegaran Rajendran, 30, and Jaya Kumar Krishnasamy, 31, were fined $8,000 and $8,500 respectively. The two will pay their fines in instalments, while Ramachandra will serve an additional three weeks and five days’ jail in lieu of his fine.
The three, who did not have lawyers, were accompanied in court by 14 friends and family members. Ramachandra was seen hugging at least six individuals before being led away to begin his jail sentence.
The dispute occured on 3 February 2015 at the junction of Serangoon Road and Desker Road and was captured in a video that was widely circulated online.
On the day of the incident, Ramachandra and Gunasegaran, who are cousins, engaged an urumi troupe to play musical instruments to support the latter’s brother who was taking part in the festivities. Jaya Kumar is a friend of both the accused.
During the procession, several police officers approached the troupe and told them not to playing as musical instruments were then banned from the procession. From 2016, live music has been permitted at three points during the procession.
The three later got into a scuffle with officers who tried to calm them down. They continued struggling as they were being loaded onto a police van and hurled insults at a Malay police officer while inside the vehicle.
District Judge Kessler Soh noted that the incident had been widely reported in the media and caused much public disquiet.
“It involved acts of defiance and abuse against police officers… (The three) displayed contempt against the authorities,” he said, adding that a deterrent sentence was “clearly warranted” and that it was important that the authority of the police not be undermined by acts of defiance.
Deputy Public Prosecutor (DPP) Houston Johannus said that the celebratory mood of Thaipusam that year had been “marred” by the actions of the three.
“The entire episode arose from the accused persons’ misguided anger and overreaction to a simple act of ordinary law enforcement: some Police officers had stopped the musical urumi troupe,” he said.
“The police officers had simply been doing their duty to enforce the permit conditions for the Thaipusam festival… they had done no wrong.”
For disorderly behaviour, each could have been jailed up to a month or fined up to $1,000 on each charge. For assaulting a police officer, Ramachandra could have been jailed up to seven years, fined or caned.
For wounding the religious feelings of the Malay officer, each could have received a maximum jail term of three years’ jail and/or a fine.
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