A 47-year-old Malaysian Indian, extradited from Malaysia was today sentenced to 18 months in jail by a Singapore court for stabbing a compatriot three times in 2006.
Charles Issac Santhianathan, a security guard stabbed his colleague Rajan Arumugam in the back on June 7, 2006, in what District Judge Victor Yeo today called it as a "wholly disproportionate" act.
The court heard that Charles had angrily confronted Rajan, at an international school for speaking about him behind his back to his wife and supervisor.
During the fist fight that followed, Charles picked up a 15cm-blade knife and committed the offence after Rajan ignored his threats and tried to walk away. Court documents did not specify how the blade came to be on the table.
He fled to Malaysia and remained at large for eight years until he was arrested at Kuching International Airport on May 28 this year. He was later extradited to Singapore.
Deputy Public Prosecutor Daphne Lim pointed out how Charles had remained at large for eight years in a bid to escape punishment. Resources had to be expended to find and arrest him, and his failure to turn himself in showed a lack of remorse.
In mitigation, defence lawyer Pratap Kishan said his client was the sole breadwinner in a family with four school-going children, two of whom have special needs. He acknowledged his client had overreacted, but urged the court to consider that there had been a scuffle before the offence was committed.
Charles, could have been jailed for up to five years, caned, and fined.
