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SINGAPORE – A man originally charged with murder following a 2019 fight in Orchard Towers was sentenced Friday (March 5) to four years and nine months in jail with 12 baton strokes after pleading guilty to a reduced charge of being in company of someone who had a weapon in their possession.
Tan Hong Sheng, now 24, was the sixth person linked to the case to be heard in district court.
On February 5, he pleaded guilty to being in the company of Tan Sen Yang, now 29, who had a kerambit knife in Orchard Towers on the day that 31-year-old Satheesh Noel Gobidass was killed.
The young man also admitted two unrelated rioting charges last month.
Tan Hong Sheng was one of seven people initially charged with Satheesh’s murder on July 2, 2019.
Tan Sen Yang still faces a murder charge and will be tried in High Court. The other six have seen their murder charges reduced to less serious ones, such as assault.
Tan Hong Sheng’s attorneys, Josephus Tan and Cory Wong of Invictus Law Corporation, had previously said that their client was not involved in the attack on Satheesh and instead tried to stop him.
The court heard that Tan Hong Sheng and her group were at the Naughty Girl Club on the second floor of Orchard Towers when a dispute broke out at the entrance.
He was leaving the mall in the early hours of that day when Satheesh confronted a member of his group.
Deputy Prosecutors Ang Feng Qian, Dora Tay and Benedict Teong had stated in court documents: “During this time, the defendant had noticed that (Tan Sen Yang) had the kerambit knife in his right hand when he walked towards Satheesh and began to beat him. with said knife in his right hand.
“During this assault, (Tan Sen Yang) fatally wounded Satheesh when he used the kerambit knife to inflict multiple wounds to Satheesh’s head and neck area.”
Mr. Satheesh collapsed and was pronounced dead at Tan Tock Seng Hospital around 7.30am. M.
Tan Hong Sheng had committed previous riots and was out on bail for one of them when he went to Orchard Towers on the day of the fatal attack.
Citing the above case on November 18, 2018, DPPs stated that he was at Club V5 Thai nightclub in Ming Arcade on Cuscaden Road when a fight broke out between his friends and another group.
Tan Hong Sheng took a bottle of liquor and used it to repeatedly hit a man’s head before fleeing towards Johor Baru.
He later returned to Singapore and was arrested by police on February 25, 2019. He was then released pending further investigation.
Despite this, he relapsed about two months later and committed a second act of rioting, this time outside of another nightspot called District 9 on Orchard Road.
During the fight, he used a pair of ice pliers to repeatedly hit a man’s face. Tan Hong Sheng and his group were arrested and later released on bail.
Four of the offenders linked to the Orchard Towers incident had previously been convicted and sentenced to prison.
They are: Natalie Siow Yu Zhen, 24, Joel Tan Yun Sheng, Ang Da Yuan, and Loo Boon Chong. All three men are 27 years old.
A fifth member of the group, Mr. Chan Jia Xing, also 27, received a conditional warning for associating with a person carrying an offensive weapon in a public place.
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