26YO Man Jailed for Assaulting Man & Hosting 18-Player Poker Game When Group Limit Was 5

When you lose a game of poker, there are two ways in which you can react:

1. Accept your loss and move on to the next game
2. Literally anything but beat up your opponent for winning

So, what do you do when your friends accuse an opponent of cheating and start beating him up?

Well, if you’re this man, you join in.

Man Assaulted Opponent Along With Friends After Accusing Him of Cheating

Daryl Tan You Ming, like many people, enjoys a game of Poker.

He and his friends often played Poker at a unit he rented at the Northstar @ AMK building, located along Ang Mo Kio Avenue 5.

He shared the space and split the rental payments with another man.

A few days before a Poker game was to be held there, Tan passed his keys to the unit to his friend Lee Tian Ci, who then passed it to Kesigan Emmanuel Santhakumar.

Then, on 28 July last year, the men held a game involving 18 players even though social gatherings were restricted to 5 at the time.

When Tan showed up at 1.30am – without a mask – 10 people were still playing while others stood around to watch the game.

At around 3am, 8 people were left at the unit including Tan, Ian Lee Enyuan, and Kesigan.

At one point, Kesigan started accusing Enyuan of cheating. Enyuan denied this, saying he had made a mistake in covering two poker cards on the table.

However, Kesgian didn’t believe him, and Enyuan proposed to return about S$200 to S$400 to appease him.

Instead, Kesigan wanted S$50,000 in compensation – roughly three times the average buy-in amount of S$1,000 for 15 players.

Enyuan disagreed, and Kesigan allegedly punched him on his nose, causing him to bleed profusely.

Kesigan, along with Tan, Lee, and another friend, kept grilling Enyuan, asking him how much personal savings he had.

When they found a phone in his bag, they become more aggressive in their questioning as they believed Enyuan was lying about his finances.

They made him unlock his phone and hand over his wallet, which Kesigan used to purchase 40 iPhones from Lazada using Enyuan’s debit card.

But the nightmare wasn’t yet over for Enyuan.

Tan then grabbed him by the hair and shook his head up and down. Kesigan also kneed him in the face and others joined in the assault.

After telling him to wash the blood off his face, Kesigan allegedly logged into Enyuan’s bank account and transferred $70,000 into his friend’s account.

The group then forced Enyuan to sign a handwritten document declaring that he owed Kesigan S$70,000 and that the debt had been paid off.

Kesigan took a video of him signing this document.

Enyuan was later taken to National University Hospital as he suffered a small cut on his face and a possible broken nose.

His friends would soon be in a lot more trouble, though, as he also lodged a police report.

3 Weeks’ Jail

Yesterday (17 June), Tan was sentenced to three weeks’ jail and fined S$8,000 for his actions.

He pleaded guilty to:

• one charge each of exceeding the maximum group size allowed
• using criminal force on the victim Enyuan
• permitting another person to use his space as a common gaming house

In his defence, Tan claimed that he was simply waiting for the argument between Enyuan and Kesigan to end, and that he grabbed the victim’s head “to impress upon him the lateness of the hour”.

Hmm.

He also claims to have retrieved tissue and ice for the victim and called for a private-hire car as well.

Kesigan has also been charged in court and his case is pending.

Featured Image: Google Maps