Indian gets 30 months in jail for Little India riot

, Jul 7: A 36-year-old

was on Monday jailed for 30 months in Singapore and ordered three cane strokes for rioting and setting ablaze property during the Little India

last December, becoming the 14th Indian to be jailed in the country's worst

in 40 years.

The court heard how Sarangan Kumaran was in the Race Course Road area of the Little India precinct when he saw a group of workers surrounding and hitting the bus that had knocked down an Indian national on the night of December 8.

Sarangan joined the unlawful assembly to scold police officers and throw projectiles including rocks, large concrete slabs and beer bottles at them and nearby police cars. Sarangan also threw burning items on the bus.

He was also photographed hurling a large rock at an overturned police car and threw a large green plastic rubbish bin at the windscreen of a police vehicle, causing it to crack, The Straits Times reported.

The rioters injured 54 police and defence officers and damaged 23 emergency vehicles. The riot was sparked by a fatal accident involving a bus and an Indian national who was working in Singapore.

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.

Little India is a precinct of Indian origin businesses, eateries and pubs where most of the construction workers from South Asia spend their weekend and day off. Kumaran is the 14th man to be jailed in the case.

Of those found guilty, most have been handed down prison terms of less than a year with only a few being jailed for a long period. In May, another Indian named Arumugam Karthik had been sentenced to 33 months in jail and three strokes of cane for his role in rioting.

In the same month earlier, an Indian named Ramalingam Sakthivel had also been sentenced to 30 months in jail and three strokes of the cane for rioting and setting a bus on fire in Little India riot case.

PTI