3 men charged with rioting in Chinatown brawl captured on video during circuit breaker
A screengrab of a video circulating online shows what appears to be closed-circuit television footage of a brawl between a group of men that took place on May 10, 2020.
SINGAPORE — Following a two-day manhunt for suspects in a fight that took place in Chinatown in the wee hours of Sunday (May 10), three men were caught and charged in court on Thursday with rioting with deadly weapons.
The brawl at People’s Park Centre stemmed from a dispute between two men from different groups over a woman, the police said on Tuesday.
The three charged on Thursday were Muhammad Farid Surian, 20; Muhammad Roslan Mohamed Rumli, who turned 29 on Thursday; and Noor Najat Alwi, 20.
According to court documents, they were with two other men — Muhammad Syukri Muhammad Iskandar and Muhammad Ilham Noordin. The police are appealing for information on their whereabouts.
Farid, Roslan and Najat are accused of being armed with a knife each while on the 16th storey of People’s Park Centre that morning.
Court documents stated that at about 3.30am, the five men allegedly wanted to cause hurt to five others.
A video circulated online showed what appeared to be closed-circuit television footage of the incident.
Four people wearing black outfits and masks were captured waiting along a corridor before six others rushed in and began fighting with them.
A 19-year-old teenager was taken to hospital after the fight.
Between Sunday and Tuesday, the police nabbed 11 men and a woman aged between 18 and 29 — including Farid, Roslan and Najat — following several islandwide raids.
On top of the alleged offences, the police are also investigating one of the men for harbouring another two of the other men. The police, however, did not specify whom they are investigating.
With regulations tightened to restrict social activities and interaction during the Covid-19 pandemic, all of them will also be investigated for breaching safe distancing measures under the Covid-19 (Temporary Measures) (Control Order) Regulations 2020.
Farid, Roslin and Najat do not face any charges related to that so far.
Farid already had another pending charge for trespassing in ITE College West on the afternoon of May 16 last year with the intention to voluntarily cause hurt.
About a month later, an arrest warrant was issued against him after he was charged but failed to show up in court for his next hearing.
The three men will be remanded at Central Police Division headquarters for investigations to be conducted. They will return to court on May 21.
If convicted of rioting, they could be jailed up to 10 years and caned.
This was the third violent incident reported on Sunday.
There was also an attack at Chua Chu Kang Cemetery in the wee hours and an alleged murder at night in Punggol.
Two men — 24-year-old Gervan Wong Jun Heng and 30-year-old Andre Chen Si’en — have been charged over the first incident. A 30-year-old man was found in Bishan with injuries including a fractured hand, puncture wounds and lacerations on his legs.
As for the second incident, no one has been arrested so far for the alleged murder of a 38-year-old man who was found badly injured at Punggol Field and later died in Sengkang General Hospital.
