Singapore:
A 47-year-old man of Indian origin was sentenced to five months in prison on Friday for forcing another man to undress and do various exercises for failing to pay his inflated debt of about SGD 6,000.
A similar charge and a charge of voluntarily causing hurt were also taken into consideration in the sentencing of Nadeson Pillai Sockalingam Pillai. He also had the man change clothes, go to a barber and shave his beard and head.
The convict's two Indian-origin friends, Jay Shawn Fernandez and Jude Prabu Davias Pathy, have also been charged with criminal intimidation.
One of Pillai's friends recorded the humiliating acts against the man, TODAY newspaper reported on Friday. The proceedings against the two were not mentioned in the newspaper.
Deputy Public Prosecutor (DPP) Andre Chong told the court that the victim had borrowed about SGD400 from Jay on March 26 last year and agreed to pay him SGD700.
However, the victim only repaid SGD200 and Jay continued to inflate the debt, which he estimated at around SGD6,000 on May 13.
That same day, Jay asked Nadeson and Jude to meet him and the victim at a bar in Woodlands. “Jay then told the defendant and Jude to accompany him to confront the victim for not repaying the debt. Jude and the defendant agreed,” DPP Chong said.
The trio took turns physically assaulting the victim at a bar, with Nadeson hitting the victim's cheek with a bracelet.
They then marched the victim to a warehouse in Woodlands Industrial Estate in northern Singapore, which Jay recorded on his mobile phone.
Inside the warehouse, Jay ordered the victim to undress. When the victim hesitated, the trio threatened to beat him again.
“The victim, who had recently been attacked by the trio, was placed in significant fear by the threat. He complied and took off all his clothes,” TODAY quoted DPP Chong as saying in court.
The victim was then forced to perform three to five minutes of naked sit-ups, push-ups, jumping jacks and sprints, which Jay recorded on his phone.
He then warned the victim that he would put the video online if the victim filed a report.
The victim was then instructed by the trio to change clothes and go to a hairdresser.
There, the barber was asked to shave the victim's head and beard. This incident was also recorded by Jay.
The victim reported the incident to police on May 29 and Jay was arrested the same day. Jude was arrested on July 25 and Nadeson remained at large until January 24 this year.
DPP Chong asked for a jail term of six to eight months, noting that the three had “no qualms in following through on their threat” to beat up the victim after previously physically assaulting him.
“The previous physical attack also increased the strength of the threat in the victim's mind, making him even more afraid that he would be beaten up again,” he added.
“The victim's fear may have been further exacerbated by the context in which the threat was made – in an isolated location, where he was outnumbered by the suspect three to one, without the means to free himself.” DPP Ching said the trio's decision to film the victim “only increased his humiliation”.
In his mitigating plea, Nadeson said he had been drunk at the time.
He also questioned the extent of the victim's injuries from the physical attack and asked whether the victim had visited a hospital.
“(The victim) kept my friend's money and never paid it back, but took it to another bar and spent it on the women in the bar,” Nadeson alleged in court, adding that he “ unfair” thought he was being detained. in jail while the victim was free.
Nadeson's sentencing was backdated to January 24, the date of his arrest.
For criminal intimidation, he could have been jailed for up to two years, fined, or both.