Three Singaporean men were charged in court on Saturday morning for disorderly behavior and attacking police officers during the annual Thaipusam procession earlier in the week.
Ramachandra Chandramohan, 32, was alleged to have punched, kicked and verbally abused four police officers. He is also being charged with disorderly behavior and faces seven charges in total, the highest number among the trio.
Jaya Kumar Krishnasamy, 28, faces three charges. He is being charged with disorderly behavior, allegedly hurling vulgarities at a police officer and obstructing another police officer from carrying out his duties.
Gunasegaran Rajendran, 33, faces two charges which include behaving in a disorderly conduct and with the deliberate intention to wound the religious feelings of a police officer.
Ramachandra Chandramohan,32, faces seven charges, the most among the three, including behaving in a disorderly manner and voluntarily causing hurt to a police officer. He was also asked to surrender his passport.
All three were represented in court by their lawyer, Mr James Selvaraj. Their cases have been adjourned and all three are currently out on bail and will appear again in court on 6 March.
If convicted, the three will face maximum jail sentences of between three months and seven years, maximum fines of between $2,000 and $5,000, or both.
Ramachandra Chandramohan is also liable to be caned if convicted of attacking police officers.
Video of the incident can be seen here and Ramachandra Chandramohan posted a statement of what transpired in the incident from his point of view, which readers can view what he wrote here.
Under section 332 of the penal code, “Whoever voluntarily causes hurt to any person being a public servant in the discharge of his duty as such public servant, or with intent to prevent or deter that person or any other public servant from discharging his duty as such public servant, or in consequence of anything done or attempted to be done by that person in the lawful discharge of his duty as such public servant, shall be punished with imprisonment for a term which may extend to 7 years, or with fine, or with caning, or with any combination of such punishments.”
