A "SETTLEMENT talk" between two rival gangs in West Coast Road
over a dispute did not pan out the way it was supposed to.
The Gi Hai Khim gang had showed up for that April 2009 meeting
seriously outnumbered, forcing its members to accede to the other
side's demands.
The Gi Hai Khim gang then decided that an attack on the other
side in order to avenge the humiliation.
Nine of the gang members, led by Poovaindran Murugan, then 25,
set upon a member of the other gang, who was at a bus stop with a
friend. Of the nine, Poovaindran was armed with a pole while
another member of his group had a spanner.
The attack on April 29 left Arifudien B. M. J. Abideen, then 17,
so badly beaten up that he had to spend a week in hospital with
head injuries.
His right eyeball was ruptured, and he is now blind in that
eye.
Yesterday, Poovaindran was jailed four years and ordered to be
given 12 strokes of the cane for rioting.
He was also handed down nine months for being part of an
unlawful assembly. The two terms will run concurrently.
The other eight members of his group have already been dealt
with in court.
A gangland attack in Downtown East which took place more
recently - last October - left a 19-year-old polytechnic student
dead.
Eleven men have been charged with his murder.
(Taken from The Straits Times, Tuesday, May 31 2011, Page
B5)