Indian national jailed 12 weeks in Singapore for pouring soil into company vehicle’s engine compartment

PTI, Feb 19, 2022, 10:23 AM IST

An Indian driver in Singapore was sentenced to 12 weeks in prison on Friday for damaging a company vehicle by pouring soil into its engine compartment, following a work-related dispute with his employer.

Seeni Paramasivam, 40, was jailed for one count of committing mischief.

In March 2020, Paramasivam, who worked as a driver for Integrated Infrastructure and stayed in the company’s dormitory in Sungei Kadut (an industrial area in the Northern region of Singapore), became embroiled in a work-related dispute with his company, Channel News Asia reported.

Details of the dispute were not revealed in the court documents.

He earned Singapore dollars 465 (USD 346) in basic salary, and his monthly net salary was about Singapore dollars 1,000 (USD 744) after taking into account overtime pay, allowances and other deductions.

On March 21, 2020, Paramasivam drank two cans of beer in his dorm room while mulling over the dispute. Feeling frustrated and thinking that the company was not listening to him, he decided to ”do something to gain the company’s attention”, the prosecutor said.

At about 3 am that day, he walked towards the company vehicle parked outside, opened the engine compartment and poured some soil into it.

As an experienced driver, Paramasivam knew that his actions would damage the vehicle, but he wanted the company to incur the losses by diminishing the lorry’s utility.

The assigned driver of the vehicle reported the next day that smoke was coming from the engine of the vehicle. It was taken to a workshop, where the crime was uncovered.

Paramasivam was caught on closed-circuit television footage walking towards the lorry at the time of the offence. He has made restitution of Singapore dollars 254.9 (USD 189) via salary deduction, the report said.

The company spent Singapore dollars 24,931 (USD I8,569) repairing the vehicle.

The prosecutor sought three months’ jail and did not ask for a compensation order, ”bearing in mind the accused’s income”.

For mischief, the Indian national could have been jailed up to two years, fined, or both.