62-year-old Mohdmed Kassiah P. N. Sha was sentenced to 1-month imprisonment after pleading guilty to a charge of voluntarily causing hurt.
He had verbally and physically assaulted 20-year-old cleaner Ahammed Siyam, punching his chest in the process.
Another charge under the Protection from Harassment Act was considered for her sentence.
The victim’s employer, NRT Trading and Engineering, was engaged by Marine Parade Town Council to clean the estate, according to the State Prosecuting Office (SPO) Lim Yeow Leong.
What happened?
On 9 March at about 11.15 am, the victim was washing the toilets at Block 89 Circuit Road with his 48-year-old father Mr Babul Abdul Aziz, who was supervising.
The two Bangladeshi nationals then spotted Kassian sitting nearby, suspecting that he was collecting money from the people who were using the toilets.
Babul approached the man and told him to leave, but he later returned and attacked Ahammed at the Rubbish Bin Centre.
Ahammed was punched but didn’t fight back and called his father (the supervisor) for help.
However, Kassiah (the assailant) then called the police instead, claiming that he was attacked by two people at Block 88 Circuit Road.
Police officers later interviewed the assailant, who claimed that the victim and his father had assaulted him for “no reason” instead.
But the police officers noted that Kassiah was reeking of alcohol at the time and couldn’t provide any material facts of the alleged assault that he claimed, and was incoherent in his speech. His allegation of assault was also not substantiated.
The assailant was attended to by a paramedic, complaining that he had stomach pain and that he had too much to drink earlier, but refused to be conveyed to the hospital in an ambulance.
Meanwhile, the victim, Ahammed, sought medical treatment at a polyclinic in Geylang and was found to have suffered a mild chest wall contusion, and was given one day of medical leave.
The assailant, Kassiah, was subsequently arrested on 11 March.
Tin Pei Ling previously shared about the incident
Member of Parliament Tin Pei Ling shared on her Instagram about an incident at Macpherson, where a HDB cleaner was “hunted down” by a “likely intoxicated” man and punched in the chest.
The incident happened on 9 March late at night, at the void deck of Block 87 Circuit Road.
Tin said that the cleaners at the estate had been harassed by the man for a while now, and the harassment continued even on the day of Tin’s block visits.
She said that when the head cleaner of the estate, Babul, stepped in to defend his cleaner, the man then allegedly hunted down one of the cleaners and punched him in the chest.
Tin revealed that the victim was also Babul’s son, and that he was hurt by the incident emotionally; Tin appealed to residents to be kind and said the cleaners don’t deserve to be treated like that.
The Singapore Police Force is investigating the incident, and the assailant is described as being a man in his 60s who often drinks beer around the estate.
Tin Pei Ling’s Instagram post
Sth unfortunate happened today in MacPherson. Sharing the story here to raise awareness and hopefully, we can spread greater kindness towards those who work hard to earn an honest living.
Babul is an extremely hardworking man. He is very friendly and helpful, always on the ground to clean our estate and running around to check as well. Residents who know him have all praised him to me. Hence, I am very much saddened to know of what happened to him and his son today.
To all who have offered your well wishes to Babul, thank you! I have conveyed to him as well