Indian jailed for 25 months in Singapore's Little India riots

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http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/NRI/Other-News/Indian-jailed-for-25-months-in-Singapores-Little-India-riots/articleshow/40270152.cms

A 42-year-old Indian was on Thursday jailed for 25 months in Singapore for instigating the Little India riots last December, becoming the sixth Indian to be convicted in the country's worst street violence in 40 years.

The prison sentence of Samiyappan Sellathurai was backdated to his arrest on December 15, 2014 at the airport here when he was trying to leave Singapore.

Described as an "instigator" in the riot, Samiyappan admitted to smashing a concrete slab and throwing the pieces at civil defence personnel and public service vehicles while intoxicated during the riot on the night of December 8.

He also smashed a metal rack against a wall at a subway station in Little India to bring it down.

The riot left 54 police and civil defence officers injured and 23 emergency vehicles damaged.

The court heard that onlookers in the crowd around Samiyappan were spurred by his actions and turned into a mob of violent rioters.

Samiyappan left the scene and subsequently left his then-workplace and was on a run. But he was arrested at Changi Airport on December 15 when he tried to leave Singapore on a flight bound for India.

Some 400 migrant workers were at the scene of the riot. Fifty-two Indians were deported from Singapore for their alleged involvement in the riots.

Twenty-five Indian nationals, working in Singapore on permits, were charged for rioting.

Singapore courts have to date dealt with 15 Indian nationals, including Samiyappan, with jail terms and deportation.

Five of them have been similarly convicted of rioting, receiving up to 33 months' imprisonment and three strokes of the cane.