Man Punched Female Patron’s Face While Arguing with Her at Bukit Merah Hawker Centre

By
Zhi Hao
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Usually, arguments will involve words and nothing else. For instance, look at the following convo.

Individual A: “Oi, you bang into me never say sorry ah?”

Individual B: “Eh sorry lor.”

Individual A: “You say sorry enough already ah?”

Individual B: “Then what you want?”

Individual A: “Still so cocky… you want to take this outside is it?”

Individual B: “Come lah.”

Individual A: “**** if my mum didn’t already cook dinner for me I’ll come and slap you already.”

Individual B: “Ha if my Fatimah didn’t already ring the bell for me to go home I would’ve double slapped you already.”

You get the gist.

But sometimes, arguments could involve more than just words and heated exchanges.

They could also entail the likes of fists or worse…

Sucker punches.

Man Punched Female Patron’s Face While Arguing with Her at Bukit Merah Hawker Centre

On 6 Sep, Cho Wai Keong, 61, and Madam Tan Poh Cheng, also 61, were indulging in alcohol at separate tables.

The pair were reportedly acquaintances.

Sometime before 8pm, Cho had spotted several friends near Mdm Tan. He then walked over for a chat.

Midway through their convo, however, Mdm Tan began to talk loudly.

Cho proceeded to ask Mdm Tan to reduce her volume.

This sparked off an argument, with a war of words duly exchanged between the pair. But like all things, it soon quietened down…

Or did it?

When the war was finally over, Cho began to leave the site. But just as he went past her, he delivered a punch to the side of her face.

The impact caused Mdm Tan to fall forward and hit her head on the table.

Haemorrhages In Her Head

The next day, Mdm Tan reportedly felt pain in the head, and so made her way down to Singapore General Hospital for a check-up. It was there that she did a CT scan, which revealed that she had suffered haemorrhages in her head.

The 61-year-old, who’s also a coffee shop assistant, ended up forking some S$789 through her Central Provident Fund MediSave account. She had been hospitalised for two days, and had been given a month’s worth of medical leave.

Mdm Tan eventually lodged a police report at Bukit Merah West Neighbourhood Police Centre. She also accused Cho of running away after she hit her head on the table.

Sentencing

In court, the prosecution asked for ten to 14 weeks’ jail for Cho.

The 61-year-old male’s previous criminal offences were also brought up. He had faced a jail term of seven years, as well as 12 strokes of the cane, back in 2003 for robbery. In addition, he was charged for voluntarily causing hurt back in 2018, and had been jailed for three weeks.

Cho’s lawyer, however, expressed that Cho had acted “out of a moment of folly”.

He also added that Cho is not in a financially-sound state, and is currently getting by with the aid of medical social assistance.

Cho was eventually sentenced to ten weeks in jail. For causing hurt, he could have faced a jail term of up to three years, a fine of up to S$5,000 or both.

Other Instances

Unfortunately, such anger-oriented tiffs at hawker centres aren’t exactly non-existent.

Back in June 2020, a quarrel in Pasir Panjang Hawker Centre got so heated up that one of the parties, a stallholder, hit the other party’s phone with sheer force.

The device ended up flying two tables away.

While the so-called “duck rice stallholder” was condemned for his temper, quite a number of people have also gone online to call out the guy in white, claiming that he’s well-known for cutting queues there.

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Zhi Hao
Email: [email protected]