SINGAPORE - The man who drew flak online for his Facebook post criticising a Traffic Police officer who died in the line of duty has been arrested for shoplifting.
Thomas Chua Poh Heng, 39, was nabbed on Sunday (June 4) at 5.37am for alleged shop theft at a departmental store along Syed Alwi Road, police said in a press release early Monday.
The Straits Times understands that the departmental store is Mustafa Centre.
Chua was detained by in-house security officers outside the store with an unpaid item and handed over to police.
Police added that Chua, prior to his arrest for alleged shop theft, was already under investigation for three other separate police reports lodged against him since January this year.
Chua was widely condemned by netizens after he put up a Facebook post criticising Staff Sergeant Nadzrie Matin, 29 - who was killed while on duty after an accident along Serangoon Road last Thursday (June 1) - for issuing him a ticket. The post has since been taken down.
It is understood that while Chua had a string of traffic violations to his name previously, none were issued by SSG Nadzrie.
Law and Home Affairs Minister K. Shanmugam, in a Facebook post on Saturday, said he was "deeply upset and angry" by Chua's comments.
Calling Chua "sick in the head", Mr Shanmugam added that the comments were an insult to all police officers and deeply offensive to SSG Nadzrie's family.
