SINGAPORE: A man has been sentenced to 17 months’ jail for using a chair to hit a victim of a knife attack.
Pradave Shashi Kumar, 22, pleaded guilty on Tuesday (Aug 4) to a charge of voluntarily causing hurt with a dangerous weapon.
The victim, Dhinessh Vasie, died after sustaining wounds in the knife attack which happened during a brawl along Kitchener Road on Sept 22, 2024.
The court heard that the 25-year-old victim was stabbed in the heart during the fight.
Pradave was the first of four accused persons to be dealt with in this case.
The other three are Muhammad Sajid Saleem, 24, who was charged with murder; and Satish Jason Prabhas and Kirrthik Roshan Prem Ananth, both 23, who are facing rioting charges.
The incident happened after Pradave, Sajid, Satish and Kirrthik and two women left in a private-hire car from a club in Golden Mile Tower to a pub in Sam Leong Road to continue drinking.
They arrived at around 4am, and were walking along a back alley when they saw a group of eight men locked in an argument with three women.
Dhinessh was among the eight men in the group, said Deputy Public Prosecutor Jonathan Tan.
At one point, Satish exchanged words with another man in the group of eight, before throwing punches at the man.
It sparked an altercation between Pradave, Satish and several men in Dhinessh’s group.
In the melee, Dhinessh’s group moved towards the back alley in the direction of Verdun Road. Several witnesses allegedly saw Sajid holding a small knife in his right hand, with the 7.5cm blade pointing downwards.
When they saw this, Dhinessh and his friends ran away, but Pradave, Sajid, Satish and Kirrthik gave chase and caught up with them.
The prosecutor said Pradave then saw Sajid slash Dhinessh and two others with the knife, even as they were trying to run away.
As Dhinessh approached a coffee shop located at the intersection of Verdun Road and Sam Leong Road, he slowed down and eventually stopped there.
This allowed Sajid to catch up with him. He then allegedly stabbed Dhinessh in the upper back with the knife.
At this point, Kirrthik is said to have grabbed a chair from the coffee shop. He used it to allegedly hit Dhinessh repeatedly.
Pradave also picked up another chair and hit Dhinessh’s head and chest with force twice.
During the assault, Dhinessh was slumped over and did not retaliate in any way, said the prosecutor.
After the attack, the group left the scene and walked towards City Square Mall.
The police and paramedics arrived shortly after. Pradave was arrested at around 5.15am on the same day.
Those convicted of voluntarily causing hurt using a dangerous weapon can be jailed for up to seven years, fined, caned, or receive any combination of such punishments. - The Straits Times/ANN
