Musician and rapper Subhas Nair, charged with attempting to promote feelings of ill-will between different groups over issues of religion and race,seems more concerned online with convicted felons who face execution.
Despite his own legal troubles, he has continued to highlight the situation of others, including Rosman Bin Abdullah, who is scheduled to be executed on Feb 23 for a drug conviction.
When his own charges were announced last October, Nair drew attention to convicted Malaysian drug trafficker Nagaenthran K Dharmalingam.
Nair’s case was heard in a district court on Tuesday (Feb 22) and he is expected to plead guilty when he next faces the court. He is represented by lawyer Eugene Thuraisingam.
Nair, 29, whose full name is Subhas Govin Prabhakar Nair, was charged on Nov 1, last year, and is expected in court again on Apr 29 before Senior District Judge Bala Reddy.
Nair’s legal troubles
It all started with a video he made in 2019 with his sister, Preeti Nair, popularly known as Preetipls. Nair allegedly breached the conditions in the warning given them in 2019 following the video’s release.
The Singapore Police Force had announced on Oct 28, 2021, that Nair would be charged with four counts of attempting to promote feelings of ill-will between different groups on grounds of religion and race.
According to the police, “One of the terms of the warning stipulates that if he re-offends, he may be prosecuted for the offence for which he was warned, in addition to …the alleged fresh offences.”
The Oct 28, 2021 charges stem from that July 2019 video in response to an ad by the brother and sister, They were reacting to the ad showing Chinese actor Dennis Chew in brownface portraying a Malay woman and an Indian man among others.
Nair and Preetipls’ rap video took aim at the ad, and some of their lyrics targeted Chinese Singaporeans. In August 2019, police gave them a 24-month conditional warning for their rap video.
Since then, said the police, Nair had committed further similar offenses, including making comments on social media on July 25, 2020, responding to a video of Chinese Christians who made hateful comments against another community.
A few months later, on Oct 15, he commented on the July 2019 murder of an Indian man at Orchard Towers, saying that a Chinese man who was one of the accused received lenient treatment by the authorities because of his race.
Finally, during a stage perfomance last March, Nair showed a cartoon drawing of his Oct 15 social media post that allegedly tried to promote ill-will between Chinese and Indians.
If convicted of the fresh offences, he may be fined and serve up to three years in jail.
/TISG
Subhas Nair draws attention to death row convict as he appears in court to face charges