The suspect forcefully bit the victim’s finger and wouldn’t let go, police said
Singapore:
A 40-year-old Indian national was sentenced to ten months in prison on Friday for biting off part of a compatriot’s index finger while under the influence of alcohol during a fight at a party in Singapore in April this year.
Thangarasu Rengasamy, who worked as an excavator operator, pleaded guilty to voluntarily inflicting severe pain on Nagooran Balasubramanian’s left index finger, The Straits Times newspaper reported.
Rengasamy and Balasubramanian, both Indian nationals, were living in separate dormitories for foreign workers in Kaki Bukit at the time of the crime.
Shortly before the attack, Nagooran, 50, and construction worker Ramamoorthy Anantharaj, 33, drank alcohol in the dormitory on April 22.
A drunken Rengasamy, who was sitting about five meters away from the couple, started shouting and Ramamoorthy told him to keep the volume down.
A scuffle broke out between the couple and Nagooran tried to separate them. Deputy Public Prosecutor (DPP) Cai Chenghan said: “In the middle of the struggle, (Nagooran’s) left index finger accidentally entered the suspect’s mouth. The suspect… bit the victim’s finger with force and did not let go .” “The suspect and the victim then fell to the ground, with the suspect still biting the victim’s finger,” the Singaporean daily quoted the DPP as saying. Ramamoorthy tried to pull Rengasamy away, but he couldn’t loosen his bite.
“Nagooran, an electrical engineer, finally managed to free himself a few seconds later and saw that his finger was bleeding.
He alerted the police and was rushed to a hospital.
The severed part of Nagooran’s finger could not be found.
He was diagnosed with a partial amputation of the finger and was told he needed surgery.
DPP Cai had asked that Rengasamy be given a prison sentence of ten months to one year.
“The victim is… likely to experience continued inconvenience given the nature of his occupation as an electrical engineer,” the DPP said.
Under Singapore law, an offender can be jailed for up to 10 years and fined or caned if he voluntarily causes serious harm.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by DailyExpertNews staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
