SINGAPORE: Five men involved in a brawl at Concorde Hotel and Shopping Mall along Orchard Road in 2023 were sentenced to between two and three years’ jail and caning for being part of a riot that led to the death of a former bouncer.
The five men and their sentences are:
- Sridharan Elangovan – 36 months’ jail and six strokes of the cane
- Manojkumar Velayanatham – 30 months’ jail and four strokes
- Sashikumar Pakirsamy – 24 months’ jail and two strokes
- Puthenvilla Keith Peter – 26 months’ jail and three strokes
- Raja Rishi – 30 months’ jail and four strokes
Each earlier pleaded guilty to a charge of rioting.
Sridharan, 30, Manojkumar, 32, and Sashikumar, 34, were members of a secret society group.
Another man, Asvain Pachan Pillai Sukumaran, 30, was earlier handed a murder charge after he allegedly killed the former bouncer, 29-year-old Mohammad Isrrat Mohd Ismail. His case is pending.
Six other men, between 25 and 33 years old, were named in court documents as co-accused who took part in the riot. Another five individuals named in documents were friends of this group.
Isrrat and his friend Muhammad Shahrulnizam Osman, 30, were former bouncers at Club Rumours and members of another secret society.
THE INCIDENT
On Aug 19, 2023, from about 11pm, a group of at least 10 people, including several of the accused, started drinking at various clubs.
They ended up at Club Rumours at Concorde Hotel and Shopping Mall, where they continued drinking.
At 4.46am, Isrrat and his friend Shahrulnizam arrived. Isrrat had wanted to pass his wedding invitation card to club staff, and they sat near the entrance of the club, opposite the accused persons.
By then, the chief bouncer of the club was on alert as he noticed that the accused’s group included secret society members. He informed the other bouncers on shift, who subsequently armed themselves with knives. Isrrat did likewise.
At about 6am, as the club was closing, Isrrat shouted a profanity at the accused’s group. After a brief verbal exchange, the accused persons confronted Isrrat and Shahrulnizam, during which Isrrat punched Asvain.
Pushing and shoving ensued between the accused persons and Isrrat and Shahrulnizam. The tussle moved towards an open area along Kramat Lane before Isrrat and Shahrulnizam ran back into Concorde. They were pursued by various members of the group, who punched and kicked Isrrat.
As Isrrat was running back in, he stabbed someone in the forehead.
Various members of the accused’s group chased Isrrat around, punching and kicking him near an indoor escalator while Shahrulnizam managed to escape back into the club.
Eventually, members of the group cornered Isrrat at a glass door exit, where they kicked and punched him before Isrrat got up and ran to an outdoor area.
As the assault continued, Asvain picked up a small knife that Isrrat had dropped, and stabbed him multiple times. Sridharan kicked Isrrat once more while another person stomped on him.
After the group fled, Club Rumours staff called for an ambulance for Isrrat, who was bleeding profusely. He was taken to a hospital and pronounced dead at 6.59am.
Asvain left in a car with four others, including Sridharan and Manojkumar. He suggested that the five of them get their passports and flee to Johor Bahru to avoid arrest.
All of them were arrested at the Woodlands Checkpoint.
The rest of the accused persons were also eventually arrested. Two of them – Sashikumar and Raja, 28, surrendered to the police while Puthenvilla, 26, was arrested at Woodlands Checkpoint.
An autopsy on Isrrat found 32 injuries across his body and eight stab wounds on his lower back and abdomen. The cause of death was stab wounds to his torso.
Shahrulnizam was earlier sentenced by the court to two years and nine months’ jail, along with 12 strokes of the cane.
Passing the sentence, District Judge Eddy Tham said that rioting with violence inflicted is viewed seriously by the court as varying degrees of hurt could be caused that could “go to the extreme”.
The judge noted that in the heat of the moment, emboldened by one another, group acts of violence could escalate spontaneously and quickly, persisting without restraint or control.
Judge Tham found the link to secret societies “tenuous” in this case, as the accused persons were among friends celebrating a birthday.
He found the trigger to have been Isrrat shouting profanities.
Rioting carries a jail term of up to seven years, and caning.
