Indian-origin jilted lover gets 6 months jail in Singapore

Singapore, Dec 9

An Indian-origin man was sentenced to six months in prison on Friday for starting a fire outside his ex-girlfriend's fiance's flat in Singapore on their wedding day.

Surenthiran Sugumaran, 30, was convicted in October after he pleaded guilty to one charge of committing mischief by fire, The Straits Times reported. Sugumaran found out via an Instagram post that his former girlfriend was getting married to Mohammad Azli Mohammad Salleh.

Following this, Sugumaran, seething with rage and jealousy, locked the front gate of the victim's flat located on the 12th floor and started a fire outside the unit on March 12. After starting the fire, Sugumaran, who was clad in a black hoodie, walked down to the 12th storey and took the lift to the ground floor. He threw the lighter into the bushes before returning home.

When Salleh opened his unit door and found his front gate locked and several shoes burnt, he called the police, the paper reported. The fire-damaged property, including two pairs of Nike shoes, was valued at around 410 Singapore dollars in total.

"While the damage caused was not extensive, there was clear endangerment to lives as the fire was right outside the victim's unit and within a residential block. The use of an accelerant in the form of petrol also aggravates the potential harm that could have been caused," Deputy Public Prosecutor Bharat S. Punjabi told The Straits Times.

While sentencing Sugumaran, District Judge Eugene Teo said that "such offences are very dangerous for the occupants in the flat".

"I have to take into account the circumstances in which you planned out these offences, including the fact that you also locked up the premises and the purpose for which you committed these series of acts," the daily quoted Teo as saying.

Court documents, however, did not say how Sugumaran was caught.

--IANS