One man jailed and fined, two others fined over Thaipusam incident
A man was jailed and fined yesterday for clashing with police officers during the 2015 Thaipusam procession.
Two others were also fined over the same incident.
Businessman Ramachandra Chandramohan, 35, was sentenced to jail for a year and a week, and fined $8,000.
He told the court that he will not be paying the fine. So, he will have to spend an additional three weeks and five days behind bars.
Safety officer Gunasegaran Rajendran, 36, was fined $8,000, while operations manager Jaya Kumar Krishnasamy, 31, was fined $8,500.
The trio attended the annual Hindu event on Feb 3, 2015. Gunasegaran and Ramachandra had engaged a troupe to play urumi - a traditional Indian drum - during the procession and were joined by Jaya Kumar.
But the musicians were stopped by the police as there was a ban on the playing of musical instruments during Thaipusam at the time.
This upset Ramachandra and Gunasegaran, who shouted at the police officers.
When Staff Sergeant Dennis Lee Aik Seng arrested Gunasegaran, Ramachandra punched the officer in the jaw. Ramachandra also verbally abused Senior Staff Sergeant Azli Othman on two occasions.
Jaya Kumar tried to stop Senior Staff Sgt Azli and Chew Wei Bin from taking Ramachandra into the police van. He also verbally abused Senior Sdtaff Sgt Azli inside the vehicle.
While the van was travelling from Desker Road in Little India to Police Cantonment Complex, Ramachandra kicked Senior Staff Sgt Chew in the jaw and verbally abused Senior Staff Sgt Azli in Malay and English.
Yesterday, District Judge Kessler Soh noted that the men's offences took place at a public event.
He added that the incident was also widely reported by the media and had caused public disquiet.
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