A teenager breached pandemic regulations just to create content for his YouTube channel, interviewing people—several of whom were drunk—at Clarke Quay on New Year’s Eve.
Kotra Venkata Sai Rohankrishna, a Singaporean, pleaded guilty to two charges under the Covid-19 (Temporary Measures) (Control Order) Regulations 2020. He was given a fine of $4,000 in court on Tuesday (May 31).
Videos of a raucous crowd on the evening of Dec 31, 2021, went viral online quickly, prompting fears of a superspreader event.
The Multi-Ministry Task Force (MTF) overseeing measures to deal with the pandemic highlighted “blatant breaches” of safe management measures at the gathering and called it a “potential super spreading” event.
Finance Minister Lawrence Wong, who co-leads the MTF, told the press on Jan 5 that the revellers “got caught up in the moment” and added that enforcement action would be taken against those who breached safe management measures.
“Our investigations show that this was not an organized event. What happened was that people started gathering together, they got caught up in the moment, and soon we have a crowd of more than one hundred people at that location with many flouting the rules,” Mr Wong said.
In the wake of the viral videos, authorities arrested numerous people involved in the gathering, including Kotra, who was in a Spider-Man costume that night.
The court was told by Deputy Public Prosecutor Jeremy Bin that the 19-year-old thought of the idea of filming drunk people in the crowd to make a video for his YouTube channel, enlisting help from three friends, Glaxy Low Xuan Ming, Lee Hern Sing and Putchakayala Akash, who helped him film and were also featured in the video, The Straits Times reported.
The four met up at Prinsep Street to make the video. In order to attract attention, Kotra went as Spider-Man.
The hit movie Spider-Man: No Way Home had just been released and Kotra would have presumably caught many people’s eyes.
DPP Bin said that the teen failed to wear a face mask under the costume.
Kotra and his friends went to Clarke Quay at around 11 pm, and proceeded to engage with several people in the area to make the video.
He and Low pretended to wrestle so that the crowd would pay attention to them.
“By virtue of their costumes and actions, they were focal points of attention in the crowd,” added the DPP.
On Jan 3, Kotra uploaded a four-minute and 22-second video on his YouTube channel, and in one part of the narration he said, “this New Year’s celebration was a complete slap in the face to the law.”
The video clearly showed him gathering with more than five individuals and failing to keep the prescribed one-meter safe distance, which was in effect at that time.
DPP Bin asked for a fine of $5000 for Kotra, saying, “The accused was the mastermind in the present case. His culpability is the highest of any person in the Clarke Quay incident charged thus far.”
His friend Low has been given a fine of $2,000.
The Urban Redevelopment Authority that 14 people have faced charges related to the NYE gathering at Clark Quay, and 19 people have been handed composition fines.
A person convicted of breaching Covid-19 regulations could face a jail sentence of as long as six months or a fine of as much as $10,000. /TISG