CISCO officer told to stop making arrests during riot

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http://www.todayonline.com/singapore/cisco-officer-told-stop-making-arrests-during-riot

Auxiliary police officer Srisivasangkar Subramaniam said he had managed to apprehend four Indian foreign workers who hurled bottles on the night of the Little India riot before his supervisor told him to stop as it was “dangerous”.

“My ground supervisor told me what I was doing was brave but dangerous and told me to stop,” Mr Srisivasangkar told the Committee of Inquiry (COI) yesterday.

Asked by the COI why he stopped, Mr Srisivasangkar replied: “My supervisor told me that it was not my duty and I was alone in making the arrests and that I should stop.”

The Malaysian national was testifying on the fifth day of a public hearing by the COI convened to look into the riot on Dec 8 along Race Course Road.

Mr Srisivasangkar, who has been with security firm Certis CISCO for two years, said he had handed over the arrested men one at a time to police officers standing near him along Kerbau Road, but did not know if they were subsequently handcuffed as he was “focused” on making more arrests.

Mr Srisivasangkar said he would have carried on making arrests had he not been stopped by his supervisor. When asked by the COI how the crowd had reacted when he made the arrests, Mr Srisivasangkar said he had been shouted and booed at, but was not frightened as he felt he was performing his duty.

The COI also heard how Mr Srisivasangkar and his colleague, Mr Raymond Murugiasu, tried to control the crowd gathered around the bus that had fatally pinned Indian national Sakthivel Kumaravelu under its rear tyre.

Upon the arrival of Singapore Civil Defence Force officers to extricate the body, Mr Srisivasangkar said he and other CISCO officers asked the crowd to move back and cool down, but the mob continued to be noisy and persisted in throwing projectiles at the bus and the officers.