SINGAPORE — On Friday (Feb 28), repeat offender Victor Alexander Arumugam was sentenced to more than two years in prison after being found guilty of participating in a slashing incident involving weapons like a samurai sword and a baton on Serangoon Road in 2018.
The incidentÂ
The attack took place on July 25, 2018.
it was around 2:15 in the afternoon, and five young men were driving around in a Nissan Latio. At the wheel was Dinesh Kumar Ruvy, and fellow perpetrators Victor Alexander Arumugam, Arjun Retnavelu, Sharvin Raj Suraj and Haresh Shanmuganathan were in the car with him.
As they drove along, Mr Retnavelu saw the victim sitting at a bus stop across Broadway Hotel.
DPP Koh noted that upon seeing the victim, Mr Retnavelu “wanted to take revenge” against  the man, so he asked Mr Ruvy to stop the car and open the car boot, which held an assortment of weapons.
Mr Ruvy, Mr Retnavelu and Mr Suraj then chose their weapons, which were a samurai sword, a baton and a chopper (not respectively). Mr Arumugam and Mr Shanmuganathan  did not get any weapons.
The perpetrators then approached the victim at the bus stop and attacked him—they punched and kicked him, bashed his head with the baton, and slashed him with the samurai sword and chopper.
Though the attack did not last 30 seconds, it was severe enough that the victim, who is now 27 years old, was left with life-changing injuries. His right mid-foot was partially amputated, and he suffered deep lacerations on his arm, head and back.
After attacking the victim, the group left him on the ground and drove away.
Mr Retnavelu allegedly asked MR Ruvy to drive to a friend’s house, where he asked the friend to bring a piece of cloth. At the void deck of a Yishun block of flats, Mr Retnavelu  handed the weapons over to his “friend”, DPP Koh told the court.
Mr Retnavelu, who was later arrested, was taken to Lower Peirce Reservoir as part of investigations. He then told the police that he had wrapped the samurai sword in an orange cloth and thrown it into the reservoir while he was drunk. He also allegedly did the same to the metal baton. This reportedly took place two hours after the slashing incident.
However, search divers were unable to find the weapons after four hours combing the reservoir on that same day.
On Friday (Feb 28), the court head that the weapons were eventually found and removed by the police. After the slashing incident, the weapons were allegedly handed by Mr Retnavelu to a friend, who took them back to his place.
The sentence
Mr Arumugam, aged 26, pleaded guilty to one count of rioting and another separate charge of affray. He was given one year, five months and one week in jail, plus an extra 300 days for breaching his remission order when he participated in the slashing incident. Mr Arumugam was has been in remand since he was arrested by the police.
The affray charge against him was connected to another incident on April 28, 2018, when Mr Arumugam got into a fight at a Lucky Plaza bus stop with a group of men.
He had gone to Club Platinum at Orchard Road with some friends to celebrate a birthday. Upon leaving the establishment, Mr Arumugam thought another man was staring at him, so he punched him.
According to Deputy Public Prosecutor (DPP) Timotheus Koh, Mr Arumugam has quite the record—he was previously jailed for three years for similar offences, such as causing hurt by a dangerous weapon or means and being a member of an unlawful assembly.
He is the second perpetrator involved in the Serangoon Road slashing to be dealt with and sentenced in court—the other is 18-year-old Mr Suraj, who has been sentenced to reformative training. The cases of the three other perpetrators—Mr Retnavelu, Mr Shanmuganathan and Mr Ruvy—are currently pending.
/TISG