Murder accused Singaporean Chinese jailed for possessing knife

By PTI
SINGAPORE: A Chinese-origin Singaporean, originally accused of murdering an Indian-origin man following a brawl at a nightclub, was sentenced on Friday for up to five years after pleading guilty to a reduced charge of being in the company of someone who had a weapon in his possession.

Tan Hong Sheng, now 24, was the sixth person linked to the case who was dealt with in a district court.

He was sentenced following the brawl in 2019 to four years and nine months’ with 12 strokes of the cane, The Straits Times reported.

On February 5, he pleaded guilty to being in the company of Tan Sen Yang, now 29, who had a kerambit knife at Orchard Towers on the day Satheesh Noel Gobidass, 31, was killed.

The younger man also admitted last month to two unrelated rioting charges. Tan Hong Sheng was one of seven people initially charged with Satheesh’s murder on July 2, 2019.

Tan Sen Yang still faces a murder charge and will be dealt with in the High Court.

The other six have had their murder charges reduced to less serious ones such as assault.

Tan Hong Sheng’s lawyers, Josephus Tan and Cory Wong, had earlier said that their client did not participate in the attack on Satheesh and instead tried to stop it.

The court heard that Tan Hong Sheng and his group were at the Naughty Girl Club (night club) on the second storey of Orchard Towers in the tourist-belt of Orchard Road when a dispute broke out at the entrance.

He was walking out of the mall in the early hours of that day when Satheesh confronted a member of his group.

Deputy Public Prosecutors Ang Feng Qian, Dora Tay and Benedict Teong had stated in court documents: “During this time, the accused had noticed that (Tan Sen Yang) had the kerambit knife in his right hand when he went towards Satheesh and started punching him with the said knife in his right hand.

“During this assault, (Tan Sen Yang) injured Satheesh fatally when he used the kerambit knife to inflict multiple injures to Satheesh’s head and neck area.

” Satheesh collapsed and was pronounced dead at the Tan Tock Seng Hospital.

Tan Hong Sheng had committed earlier acts of rioting and was on bail for one of them when he went to Orchard Towers on the day of the fatal attack, according to the newspaper report.