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SINGAPORE – A man who was shot by a Singapore Police (SPF) officer after he grabbed his revolver was charged on Friday (November 6).
Prakash Mathivanan, 36, was charged along with his girlfriend Malani Naidu Prabhakar Naidu, 33, and co-defendant Nikhil M Durgude, 22, who appeared in court via video link on Friday.
The three were allegedly part of a group of seven involved in a series of cheating cases, where criminals made use of other people’s data to request and purchase new phones and phone lines from a Telco.
The suspected criminals would make the initial payment using the details of the stolen credit card and, after receiving the new phones, they would sell them for cash. The telecommunications company involved allegedly incurred a loss of approximately $ 43,000 from the sale of phones.
Two men allegedly injured a police officer
Prakash and Nikhil each received a new charge of voluntarily causing harm to a public official to prevent him from doing his duty. These are in addition to the pending charges.
Each of them was said to have voluntarily injured a sergeant by hitting and kicking him around 1:19 a.m. Thursday at the condo.
Addressing the court via video link on Friday, Nikhil denied attacking a police officer and said he did not understand why he was in pretrial detention.
The prosecution requested that Nikhil be referred for psychiatric treatment, however, District Judge Tan Jen Tse noted that the investigating officer’s report had only mentioned depression, which was not enough for Nikhil to be referred for psychiatric observation.
The judge allowed the prosecution’s request to hold Nikhil in custody for a week to help with the investigations.
Nikhil was previously under police supervision and faces pending charges related to riots, drugs and failure to comply with supervisory obligations.
Prakash also received a new cheat load
Prakash was also charged with misleading Singtel on October 14 by misleading the telecommunications company into believing that he was a person known as “Solomon Thomas Fernandez”, and that “Solomon” intended to purchase seven iPhones valued at $ 14,273 of an industrial building at 140 Paya. Lebar Road.
It is said that he induced Singtel to hand over the phones to a Muhammad Firdaus Abdul Rahman.
On October 5, 2018, Prakash was sentenced to 34 months in jail by District Judge Jasvender Kaur on charges of cheating and unauthorized access to computer material. He appealed his sentence, but Judge See Kee Oon threw it out on January 23 of last year.
He has another series of crimes, related to drugs, cheating and robbery, that are pending in court.
Prakash’s girlfriend accused
Separately, Malani was charged with cheating. She is also accused of impersonating “Solomon Thomas Fernandez” to mislead SingTel.
The prosecution requested that Malani remain in preventive detention for a week with permission from the court to take her to investigations for a series of “similar crimes.
All three will return to court on November 13.
If convicted of causing harm to a public servant to prevent him from fulfilling his duty, either of you faces a jail term of up to seven years, a fine, a beating, or any combination of the penalties.
If convicted of cheating, she faces a jail term of up to 10 years and a fine.
Prakash was shot during the fight for the revolver
As part of the operations to catch the perpetrators, three SPF officers entered a residential unit in the City Suites condominium along Balestier Road at 1 a.m. on November 5.
The trio identified themselves as police officers and found four of the suspected criminals in the unit. These were Prakash, Malani and Nikhil, and a 23-year-old woman.
According to police, while in the unit, Prakash pounced on one of the officers and attacked him repeatedly, causing the officer to fall to the ground bleeding. A second officer warned Prakash to stop his assault to no avail. The officer then saw Nikhil approaching the assaulted officer.
Concerned for his partner’s safety, the second officer drew his revolver and warned Prakash to stop his assault, but the latter did not comply.
Instead, Prakash rushed the second officer and grabbed his revolver, resulting in a fight. At this point, Nikhil also assaulted the first officer. To protect himself and prevent Prakash from snatching the revolver, the officer shot Prakash and struck him in the abdomen, but was unable to stop him.
Prakash and Nikhil were eventually subdued by backup officers. Prakash was treated by paramedics before being transported consciously to the hospital. It is in stable condition.
Both men, Malani and the 23-year-old woman were arrested, and the latter two were charged with cheating and suspected drug use. Malani is also wanted for other crimes of cheating and for not attending court.
The police also seized around $ 20,000 of alleged criminal proceeds, along with drugs and various drug paraphernalia.
The remaining members of the group of seven are two men, ages 18 and 32, and an 18-year-old woman, all detained. The 32-year-old man was arrested on November 3 along with Lorong 23 Geylang when police officers intercepted the delivery of six phones bought by the criminals.
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