Man Woke Cleaner Up to Allegedly Give Him a Piece of Birthday Cake But That Led to a Jail Term Instead

In a strange turn of events, what was meant to be a nice gesture to share the birthday celebratory cheer, ended in a short spat of violence and a fractured jaw.

How we got from Point A to Point V is a genuine mystery, even with the details from the court hearings and provided documents.

Nevertheless, here’s how everything went down.

The Birthday Bash

The offender, Sanjeevan Maha Lingam, aged 43, was sentenced to jail for 21 months and 4 weeks on Wednesday (18 May), for punching a cleaner on 24 September last year, and other offences.

From the court documents, it’s apparent that the accused is no stranger to violence; rather, he seems to default into resorting to violence whenever things aren’t going his way.

The Singaporean pleaded guilty to five charges in total: one for voluntarily causing grievous hurt, two for using criminal force to obstruct a public servant from carrying out his duties, and two under the Protection from Harassment Act.

With regards to the main offence that led Sanjeevan to the courtroom, Deputy Public Prosecutor Jordan Li stated the cleaner had finished his work around 7pm, and decided to sleep on a sofa in the bin centre at Block 1 Jalan Kukoh.

Sanjeevan woke the cleaner up around 11:15pm, allegedly in an attempt to offer him some birthday cake, but the pair got into a dispute over the cleaner sleeping in the bin centre instead.

Over the course of the argument, the offender punched his victim in the left cheek, with the intention of causing grievous harm.

This was proven when the cleaner went to see a doctor for the pain he was feeling in the jaw the next day. The X-ray revealed that he suffered a jaw fracture and needed to undergo surgery.

During his mitigation, Sanjeevan, who didn’t have a legal representative, said that he didn’t have anyone to celebrate his birthday with as his parents weren’t around.

He merely stated that he decided to wake the cleaner to give him a slice of his birthday cake, and that had somehow led to the dispute.

After giving that short statement during his mitigation, Sanjeevan didn’t elaborate further.

What the argument was about, why the cleaner resting at the bin centre offended him so much that he felt the need to punch him, simply nothing. Just the confession that he had taken violent action against his victim.

The Other Incidents of Violence

12 days prior to the birthday incident, on 12 September, two police officers received a report about a disturbance that a drunk was causing at Hong Lim Market and Food Centre.

Sanjeevan was clutching onto a bottle and reeking of alcohol when the police arrived. When the officer talked to him, he proceeded to use abusive language on the officer.

The officer then arrested him, and seized the plastic stool he had purportedly thrown.

While he was being detained at Police Cantonment Centre, Sanjeevan sat on the bench with his left hand cuffed as he held onto a slipper in his other hand.

For unknown reasons, Sanjeevan threw the slipper at the officer as she was filing a report about the plastic stool. Although the slipper hit her left arm, she was not injured.

I doubt she was pleased about his intentional slip-up though, because now she add the thrown slipper to the report as well.

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Harassing Women in the Neighbourhood

If you thought the plastic stool incident was Sanjeevan’s first run-in with the local authorities, you’re wrong on that count.

In 21 February this year, Sergeant Muhammad Firdaus Hussain and his partner were deployed at approximately 1:15pm to check on a report about a man that was harassing women around Block 34 Upper Cross Street.

In the middle of their patrol, the officers encountered Sanjeevan at a fitness corner in 51 Chin Swee Road and approached him because he matched the description in the report.

Upon finding a glass pipe in his backpack, which is a really odd item to carry around, they arrested him and brought him to the Police Cantonment Complex.

Since there were still COVID-19 Safety Management Measures in place then, Sanjeevan was required to take an antigen rapid test.

However, Sanjeevan, ever the contrarian, refused to comply with the officer’s instruction.

Instead, he repeatedly pulled down his mask.

He even went as far as spitting on Sergeant Firdaus’ faces and throwing racist insults at the officer.

The Final Verdict

For the offences listed above, the prosecution called for a jail sentence of two years, three months, and four weeks.

After citing all his prior offences, DPP Li noted that Sanjeevan was “no stranger to violence” and has consistently displayed a defiant attitude towards figures of authority.  

For voluntarily causing grievous harm, an offender may be jailed up to ten years and fined or caned.

For using criminal force to deter a public servant from discharge of his duty, he could have been jailed for a maximum of four years or fined, or both.

Under the Protection from Harassment Act, an offender can be imprisoned for up to two years, fined up to $10,000, or both.

More than anything else, Sanjeevan probably needs a lot of counselling and rehabilitation for the load of issues that seem to underlie his violent tendencies. 

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Featured Image: Shutterstock / Zolnierek