Dispute over cash gets worker 7 months in jail
Reuters file photo
SINGAPORE — Incensed with a fellow construction worker who had bought his laptop, but had not paid up “for over a year”, Md Raibul Islam Abdur Rashid Moral struck Mr Md Tofazzel Abdul Hossain with a 50cm metal rebar twice, resulting in acute haemorrhaging and bone fractures.
For voluntarily causing grievous hurt, the 38-year-old Bangladeshi national was today (June 3) sentenced to seven months’ jail.
The court heard that Md Raibul launched his attack at about 7.25am on March 23 at the carpark of Cochrane Lodge 1, along Admiralty Road West.
Armed with a 50cm solid metal rebar wrapped with newspapers, he hit the left of Mr Md Tofazzel’s head twice.
Mr Md Tofazzel was taken to Khoo Teck Puat Hospital and Md Raibul was arrested at about 10.05am the same day.
A medical report from the hospital showed that Mr Md Tofazzel had sustained bone fractures with acute haemorrhaging and a 3cm-by-3cm swelling near the left side and top of his skull. He was hospitalised from March 25 to April 30.
During the course of the investigation, Md Raibul admitted that he had ambushed Mr Md Tofazzel in his anger over their dispute about the sale of his laptop to the latter.
Today, pressing for a jail term of six to eight months, deputy public prosecutor Claire Poh said Md Raibul’s attack was premeditated, unprovoked and targeted at a vulnerable part of the victim’s body.
In mitigation, Md Raibul, who was unrepresented, said he had always maintained his remorse.
“I sold my laptop to him and he owed me some money and cheated me over the year. He always said he would pay, but he never paid ... He refused and told me, ‘I am not going to pay and, if you can, try to collect it from me.’ Hence, I became angry and beat him. But I know I shouldn’t have done that,” he said through a Bengali interpreter.
Md Raibul’s sentence will be backdated to March 24, when he was first remanded. He could have been jailed up to 10 years, with a fine or caning.
