Four more Indians were charged on Thursday for alleged rioting in Singapore, taking the total number of those arraigned in the violence to 31, as Prime Minister lee Hsien loong warned that trouble-makers will be dealt with “severely”.
Four Indians were charged in court in connection with Singapore’s worst outbreak of violence in over 40 years triggered by the death of an Indian in a road accident in little India, a precinct of Indian-origin businesses, eateries and pubs where most of the South Asian workers take their Sunday break.
Sellamuthu Elangovan, 45, Ammasi Venkatesan, 27, Selarasu Dhanapal, 25, were accused of throwing pieces of hardened concrete at the police officers in response to the melee along Race Course Road, The Straits Times reported.
The fourth man, Arumugam Karthik, was said to have been a member of an unlawful assembly and accused of attacking - with a dustbin, wooden stick, hardened concrete, bottles and a metal drain cover - a private bus that fatally knocked down 33-year-old Sakthivel Kumaravelu at the junction of Tekka lane and Race Course Road.
Kumaravelu died in the accident on Sunday night. The bus was to ferry South Asian workers from little India to their dormitories.
Karthik, 24, was also accused of overturning and setting ablaze a police vehicle during the chaos.
The case involving the four would be heard on December 19. Police said investigation against other Indians, involved in Singapore’s worst outbreak of violence in over 40 years, was ongoing.
Twenty-seven Indians had been charged in court till yesterday for the rioting and police have interrogated about 3,700 foreign workers in the country so far.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister lee said Singaporeans have taken the riot peacefully and calmly, even though they are shocked by what has happened, a report by the Channel News Asia said.
Speaking to local media today at the end of his visit to South Korea, lee said Singapore has not had a riot for a long time, but now that it has happened, it was bad and has to be dealt with firmly.
“We have one million plus foreign workers in Singapore, and about 400 were involved in this riot. There was a specific circumstance, it was a localised riot -- I think the people who were involved would have to be treated severely,” lee said. “But the population at large, the other foreign workers who are here, who are making a living here, who are making a contribution to our economy, who had nothing to do with this, I think it would be quite unfair for Singaporeans to look at them all and say ‘they’re all a problem, we cannot accept them’. I think that’s not correct and that’s not wise,” he said.
lee said the authorities must make clear the riot was unacceptable and there was no reason or justification for people to behave in that way.
At the same time, he said, it was important for Singaporeans to be fair to those who were not involved. For those who have been charged, there has to be due process of the law, lee was quoted as saying in the report.
The Premier noted that the anxiety and alarm among Singaporeans was understandable.