Public Prosecutor v Muhammad Sajid s/o Saleem

• Jurisdiction: Singapore
• Judge: Carol Ling Feng Yong
• Judgment Date: 10 January 2023
• Neutral Citation: [2023] SGDC 5
• Court: District Court (Singapore)
• Docket Number: DAC 905563/2022 and others, Magistrate’s Appeal 9245/2022/01
• Published date: 17 January 2023
• Year: 2023
• Hearing Date: 02 November 2022,30 November 2022
• Plaintiff Counsel: R. Arvindren (Attorney-General's Chambers)
• Defendant Counsel: Divanan Narkunan (Phoenix Law Corporation)
• Subject Matter: Criminal Procedure and Sentencing,Causing Grievous Hurt with Dangerous Weapon under Section 326 of the Penal Code,Other Offences,Offender under 21 years old,Sentence,Imprisonment
• Citation: [2023] SGDC 5

District Judge Carol Ling Feng Yong: Introduction

The Accused pleaded guilty to these two charges:

DAC 905563/2022

You, are charged that you, on 6 April 2022, at about 5.03 pm, in the vicinity of Block 175 Boon Lay Drive, Singapore, together with Niswan s/o Thiruchelvam, in furtherance of the common intention of you both, did voluntarily cause grievous hurt to Praveen Raj s/o Chanthiran, by means of instruments for cutting, to wit, by using two bread knives to slash the said Praveen Raj s/o Chanthiran multiple times, and thereby caused him to suffer multiple injuries including a left distal ulna fracture, a left index finger distal phalynx fracture and a right distal humerus fracture, and you have thereby committed an offence punishable under Section 326 read with section 34 of the Penal Code 1871.

DAC 906510/2022

are charged that you, from 1 July 2020 to 30 December 2021, in Singapore, have been a member of an unlawful society, to wit, the ‘Ang Soon Tong’ Triad Society of the ‘Ji It’ Group and you have thereby committed an offence punishable under section 14(3) of the Societies Act (Chapter 311, 2014 Rev Ed).

Three other charges (for voluntarily causing grievous hurt with dangerous weapon under section 326 of the Penal Code against another victim, causing hurt under section 323 of the Penal Code and one charge of being a member of an unlawful society under section 14(3) Societies Act) were taken into consideration (TIC) in sentencing.

The Accused was 20 years old when he pleaded guilty (Date of Birth: 15 November 2001). The Reformative Training (RT) suitability report called for prior to sentencing found the Accused physically and mentally suitable for reformative training at Level Two intensity i.e. a minimum of 12 months detention in an RT centre. Notwithstanding the recommendation in the RT report, I imposed the following sentences: DAC 905563/2022 - 36 months' imprisonment and six strokes of the cane. DAC 906510/2022 - Three months’ imprisonment.

The imprisonment terms were ordered to run concurrently. The total sentence was: 36 months’ imprisonment and six strokes of the cane, backdated to 7 April 2022 when he was arrested.

This is the Accused’s appeal against the sentence.

Statement of Facts

In order to appreciate the full facts of the case, I have reproduced the Statement of Facts in the following paragraphs. The Accused admitted to the Statement of Facts without qualification.

The Accused and accomplice

The Accused is Muhammad Sajid s/o Saleem (“Accused”), a 20-year-old male Singaporean bearing NRIC number: XXX. His co-accused is Niswan s/o Thiruchelvam (“Niswan”), a 19-year-old male Singaporean at the material time. He is the Accused’s friend and they were both members of the ‘Ang Soon Tong’ secret society (“the Secret Society”) of the ‘Ji It’ Group, an unlawful society as defined under s 14(1) of the Societies Act (Chapter 311, 2014 Rev Ed), operating at Block 346A, Kang Ching Road, Singapore with parental operational ground at Taman Jurong Market.

The Victims

The victims are: Praveen Raj s/o Chanthiran (“Praveen”), a 23-year-old male Singaporean at the material time; and Sarankumar s/o Subramaniam (“Saran”), a 22-year-old male Singaporean at the material time.

First Information Report

On 6 April 2022, at about 5.03pm, a complainant called “999” to inform that “There is a couple with parang chasing one guy”.

Background Information

The Accused and Niswan met each other in 2016. They became friends thereafter. Sometime after July 2020, the Accused and Niswan found out from each other that they were both members of the Secret Society and they became closer friends. They agreed that if either of them had any disputes with third parties, they would support each other.

Sometime in February 2022, the Accused’s girlfriend at the material time was messaging Praveen, which infuriated the Accused. The Accused contacted Praveen to tell him not to contact his girlfriend. The Accused and Praveen communicated through phone calls with each other and there were some verbal disputes in the following weeks due to jealousy over the Accused’s girlfriend and other personal issues. Sometime in late March 2022, Praveen and the Accused again argued with each other during a phone call. The Accused planned an attack against Praveen.

Facts Pertaining to DAC 905563/2022

On 5 April 2022, sometime at night, the Accused met Niswan for dinner. After dinner, both were relaxing at a void deck of a Woodlands block. The Accused told Niswan that he wanted to carry out an attack on Praveen in Boon Lay. The Accused told Niswan that he knew Praveen would be in the vicinity of Boon Lay Drive on 6 April 2022 as Praveen will be attending wedding celebrations of a mutual friend Emmanuel s/o Ravi (“Emmanuel”, who is the groom of the wedding) who resides in Boon Lay. Niswan agreed to join the Accused in this attack. On 5 April 2022, the Accused and Niswan purchased two bread knives to use in the attack the following day. The Accused brought back the knives to his house and kept them. The knives’ blades are about 23.5cm long.

On 6 April 2022, the Accused and Niswan met up in the morning to plan the attack. They drank some beer. They then retrieved the knives from the Accused’s house and concealed the knives underneath the waistband of their pants. On 6 April 2022, at about 3.45pm, the Accused and Niswan arrived at Block 175, Boon Lay Drive, Singapore and waited for Praveen to arrive at the vicinity. They consumed another can of beer and tracked Praveen’s movements through Praveen’s social media posts. The Accused and Niswan were each armed with a bread knife. At about 4.50pm, they spotted Praveen and Saran exiting a vehicle in the carpark vicinity of Block 175, Boon Lay Drive, Singapore. Praveen’s multiple friends (including females) also alighted from the vehicle. They had just returned from the wedding celebrations and they intended to continue the wedding celebrations at Emmanuel’s block.

At about 5.03pm, at the vicinity of the said carpark, the Accused and Niswan immediately ran towards Praveen. The Accused swung the knife towards Praveen’s head but Praveen blocked the attack with his hands. The Accused slashed Praveen’s hand. Niswan also slashed Praveen’s hand. Saran, who was nearby, shouted at both of them to stop attacking Praveen. The Accused and Niswan then turned their attention to Saran. The Accused was nearer to Saran, and he slashed Saran on his head¹. Praveen attempted to flee as he was slashed. The Accused and Niswan chased him and this time, both slashed Praveen on the upper torso and hands outside the coffeeshop of Block 175.

Praveen again attempted to flee and managed to reach a walkway near the main road of Block 175. The Accused caught up with Praveen and kicked him which resulted in Praveen falling down. The Accused and Niswan slashed Praveen’s head and torso again. While Praveen was on the ground, they also kicked him multiple times. In total, there were three separate locations in the vicinity of Block 175, Boon Lay Drive, Singapore that Praveen was attacked by the two of them resulting in multiple slash wounds. The attack took place near the carpark, outside a coffeeshop area and also a walkway near a main road. Both of them had aimed their weapons at Praveen’s head and body during the slashing.

After they ended their attack on Praveen, the Accused and Niswan saw Emmanuel in the said carpark vicinity. Emmanuel was shocked and asked them why they had to do this on his wedding day and ruin the wedding. At about 5.10pm, Niswan then pointed his knife at Emmanuel in a threatening manner and wanted to slash him. Emmanuel felt alarmed and feared for his life. The Accused pulled Niswan back as he did not have any prior dispute with Emmanuel and did not want to harm Emmanuel. The two of them fled the scene and disposed their knives in a rubbish chute in the Jurong vicinity. The knives were not recovered.

Members of public saw the vicious attacks and the Police were called. The Accused and Niswan took a private hire vehicle to Woodlands. They went to a mutual friend’s place and the mutual friend gave the Accused a change of clothes so that the Accused could avoid Police detection. By that night, videos of the incident had gone viral on social media and a manhunt was launched to arrest the Accused and Niswan. Both of them knew that it was a matter of time before they were arrested and they surrendered to the Police the next day.

Praveen and Saran were conveyed to National University hospital (“NUH”) on the same day. According to a medical report from NUH dated 26 August 2022², Praveen suffered the following injuries: Right temporal incised wound 3cm; Forehead incised wound 5cm; Left deltoid incised wound 8cm; Left elbow incised wound 2cm; Left mid forearm incised wound 3cm; Left wrist incised wound 4cm; Left index finger incised wound 1cm; Right elbow incised wound 4cm; Right arm incised wound 3cm; Right hand incised wound 8cm; Right middle finger incised wound 1cm; and Right flank incised wound 1 cm.

X-ray also revealed the following: Undisplaced fracture of the left distal ulna; Minimally displaced fracture of the left index finger distal phalanx; Undisplaced fracture of the right distal humerus.

According to a further medical report from NUH dated 29 August 2022³, Praveen suffered the following injuries: On his left upper limb: Posterior arm laceration; Posterior elbow laceration with partially cut triceps tendons; Forearm laceration with partially cut extensor carpi ulnaris tendon and unicortical breach of ulnar shaft; Wrist dorsoulnar laceration with completely cut extensor carpi ulnaris tendon and unicortical break of ulnar neck; Index finger laceration with cut digital nerve and distal phalanx fracture. On his right upper limb: Posterior shoulder and lateral arm...