Little India COI to submit report by end-June

SINGAPORE - The Committee of Inquiry (COI) into the Little India riot last December will submit its report to Home Affairs Minister Teo Chee Hean by the end of this month.

Mr Teo, who is also Deputy Prime Minister, granted the committee a two-week extension beyond the initial June 13 deadline for it to go through testimonies and other relevant information.

The COI secretariat said yesterday that the committee, chaired by former Supreme Court judge G. Pannir Selvam, conducted "further inquiry" after 24 days of public hearings ended on March 26, over which evidence from 93 witnesses was heard.

It interviewed a member of public who had come forward to share his views, but who was not available for the hearing.

Last Tuesday, it also spoke to three Indian nationals convicted over their roles in Singapore's worst public order disturbance in more than 40 years.

Two of them are Ramalingam Sakthivel, 33, and Arumugam Karthik, 25, who were last month sentenced to 30 months and 33 months in jail respectively, and three strokes of the cane each for rioting.

The COI also interviewed Karuppaiah Chandrasekar, 32, who was last month sentenced to nine months in jail for being a member of an unlawful assembly.

Six others, who were convicted of failing to disperse, have completed their terms of 15 to 18 weeks each. They have returned to India.

In the mayhem on Dec 8 last year, 23 emergency vehicles were damaged and 54 responding officers were injured.

This article was published on June 11 in The Straits Times.

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