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Man to be caned for vandalising pillar at MRT, control box

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A Chinese national was sentenced on Tuesday (Jan 20) to two months' jail and six strokes of the cane for vandalising an MRT pillar and a control box.

Gao Bin, 21, used a black marker to write pro-Falungong messages on the pillar of an MRT viaduct at Geylang East Ave 1 on Aug 21 last year at around 10pm.

The Falungong group is a spiritual movement that is banned in China for being an "evil cult".

Gao wrote in Chinese: "Fa Lun Da Fa is good. Chinese communist party is going to fall, faster leave the party, to save yourselves: 82209448."

'Create awareness'

A week later, Gao vandalised a control box at Lorong 22 Geylang​ with the same message, reported The Straits Times.

The pillar is the property of rail operator SMRT, while the control box belongs to the Land Transport Authority.

Gao told police he did so to "create awareness" among his countrymen.

Four other counts of vandalism were also taken into consideration – Gao targeted two electrical grid boxes belonging to Singapore Power, a concrete pillar belonging to SingTel​ and a pillar belonging to SMRT.

His actions caused a total of about $730 of damage, said Deputy Public Prosecutor Sarah Shi.

Ms Shi told the court Gao studies English at a private school here. His parents are in China.

For each count of vandalism, Gao could have been jailed for up to three years or fined up to $2,000, and given between three and eight strokes of the cane.

Source: The Straits Times

SingaporeVandalism