Man gets jail for pushing drunk stranger into Singapore River; victim later found dead

SINGAPORE: A man was sentenced to just under three years’ jail on Wednesday (Jul 16) for pushing a drunk man, who fell into the Singapore River and drowned.

Legha Pawan, a 22-year-old Indian national, was given 35 months’ jail. He pleaded guilty to one count of voluntarily causing hurt to Jasbir Singh, 33, where the hurt caused turned out to be grievous hurt in the form of death.

The charge had been downgraded from an earlier charge of causing death by a rash act.

A second charge was taken into consideration.

The court heard that Legha, a student, lived in Woodlands with several housemates.

On the evening of Jun 30 last year, Legha and his housemates left their flat for an evening out at Clarke Quay.

They bought six cans of beer, some cigarettes and snacks and sat down at the steps near the riverside, in the vicinity of Paradox Singapore Merchant Court Hotel and Clarke Quay Central mall.

They spent the next few hours chatting and consuming alcohol, with Legha drinking two cans of beer.

They were joined by other acquaintances along the way. Sometime before 10pm, an argument broke out among Legha’s friends. 

An intoxicated Legha pulled the hair of one of his friends and was pulled away by another friend to prevent any escalation of the situation. The group then dispersed.

Meanwhile, the victim was walking along the riverbank around 10.10pm.

Mr Singh, a construction worker, was married and had two young children back in India who depended on him financially.

He had begun drinking heavily about two or three months before the incident, after his mother died.

He was not acquainted with Legha, and he stopped and hugged a lamp post near the area where Legha had been spending time with his friends.

At about 10.30pm, Legha returned to the spot alone and approached Mr Singh.

This immediately drew the attention of a couple nearby, who were wary of Legha after recognising him from the earlier disturbance.

Initially, Legha spoke quietly to Mr Singh and made no body contact.

Mr Singh stood near the edge of the river bank, with his back to the river. Legha knew that Mr Singh was very intoxicated, the court heard.

Suddenly, for no apparent reason, Legha pushed Mr Singh on his chest with both hands.

Mr Singh fell backwards, rolled down the steps and fell into the Singapore River.

Witnessing this, the nearby couple shouted. Mr Singh quickly became submerged in the water and did not resurface. The couple alerted the police, while Legha left the scene.

The Singapore Civil Defence Force Disaster Assistance Rescue Team (DART) went down to the scene and assembled a diving team, which took turns canvassing the waters for periods of 30 to 45 minutes each.

Initially, there was no sign of Mr Singh, save for a single white slipper that belonged to him.

His body was found on the riverbed only at around 2am on Jul 1, 2024. He was pronounced dead soon after. 

An autopsy determined his cause of death to be drowning, and external injuries including a bruise to the back of his neck and a laceration on the back of his head were found.

A toxicology report found an amount of ethanol in Mr Singh’s blood which was indicative of a high level of intoxication, the court heard.

After pushing Mr Singh, Legha removed his shirt to avoid police detection and took a train back to his home, where he called his unwitting housemate to meet him with his backpack at a different block.

He did this intending to evade arrest, the court heard.

Legha returned to his flat only at around 8am on Jul 1, 2024 and was promptly arrested.

During investigations, he claimed that it was Mr Singh who first grabbed his bangle and damaged it. He claimed that he managed to free both his hands only after a short struggle, and got upset when Mr Singh used vulgarities against his mother.

However, police investigations revealed no objective evidence supporting his claim.

The prosecution said Legha knew that the victim was intoxicated. It was “reasonably foreseeable” that the push would cause grievous hurt, said Deputy Public Prosecutor Jheong Siew Yin.

She pointed out aggravating factors, including the fact that Legha was intoxicated, his act was unprovoked, and that he fled the scene without helping the victim.

Defence lawyer Simran Kaur Sandhu sought 30 months’ jail instead, saying both her client and the deceased were intoxicated. She highlighted that no weapon was used, and the push was “a generic push” not intended to target vulnerable points.

For voluntarily causing hurt that resulted in grievous hurt, Legha could have been jailed for up to five years, fined up to S$10,000, or both.