Jobless man jailed for attacking two men and stealing meat

He has been in and out of jail six times over the last 20 years.

Next month, Selvakumaran Namokarean will be back behind bars again.

In the past, he was jailed for voluntarily causing hurt, theft in dwelling, and criminal intimidation.

Yesterday, Selvakumaran, 37, who is jobless, was jailed 20 months for voluntarily causing hurt and theft.

He attacked four people on separate occasions and stole two cartons of chicken meat worth $300.

His latest crime spree lasted between April and September 2014.

On April 30, 2014, Selvakumaran got into an argument with Sativel Arumugam, 56, at the void deck of Block 707, Clementi West Street 2.

Selvakumaran had earlier accused Sativel of being a bad influence on a group of teenage students.

Selvakumaran took a red screwdriver from his back pocket and pointed it at Sativel.

He then punched and slapped Sativel, who retaliated by punching Selvakumaran in the head until he fell to the ground.

Sativel then continued raining punches and kicks on him.

The two men were later sent to National University Hospital (NUH) and Alexandra Hospital.

OTHER ATTACKS

That same day, Selvakumaran also choked another man, Mr Muhammad Qayyum, with his right hand.

Two months later, he attacked a third victim, Mr Mohammad Asri Basir, with a 33cm-long hammer.

On the evening of Aug 11, he struck again. He and his friend, Pannirselvam Mutthiah, 43, were drinking at the void deck of Block 704, West Coast Road, when they spotted Mr Noor Mohammed Nasir Ali, 29, who Pannirselvam felt had been bad-mouthing him.

They confronted him, but walked away without doing anything.

Later, they went back to Mr Noor and snatched his mobile phone.

When Mr Noor asked for it back, the two men punched him in the face, causing him to fall to the ground.

Mr Noor made a police report and later sought treatment at NUH for his swollen nose and lips, abrasions on his face, and a missing tooth from his upper jaw.

Selvakumaran and Pannirselvam were arrested and released on bail.

In September 2014, the two friends stole two cartons of chicken wings and chicken thigh meat worth $300 from a meat stall at Block 726, Clementi West Street 2.

The meat had been left in the corridor outside the stall.

Police tracked down the two men, who had been caught in the act on closed-circuit television cameras.

Yesterday, Selvakumaran pleaded guilty to two counts of voluntarily causing hurt and one count of theft, with four other charges taken into consideration during sentencing.

Assistant Public Prosecutor Dillon Kok pointed out that this was not Selvakumaran's first brush with the law.

Since 1994, he has been convicted of crimes such as housebreaking, disorderly behaviour, criminal intimidation and criminal breach of trust.

The court, however, allowed Selvakumaran, who is on $28,000 bail, to defer his sentence till May 13 to attend to his bedridden father.

Pannirselvam's and Sativel's cases are pending.