SINGAPORE - Three Malaysians who were accused originally of murder were sentenced to four years' jail and six strokes of the cane each on Tuesday for causing grievous hurt to a cleaner who later died from his injuries at the Pearl's Centre carpark.

Security guard Kirubakaran Manikumaran, 22, odd-job labourer Thiagu Muniandy, 23 and Sunder Rangasamy, 28, admitted to grievously hurting Malaysian S. Krisnan Value, 47, with Anathan Muniandy,20, between 12.37am and 1.13am on Sept 7 last year.

Anathan's case will be mentioned on Thursday.

Kirubakaran also admitted stealing Mr Krisnan's $30 mobile phone and his POSB ATM card at the multi-storey carpark of Peals' Centre at Eu Tong Sen Street that morning.

A district court heard that Kirubakaran and Thiagu joined Mr Krisnan for drinks at the coffeeshop on the first level of the building on the afternoon of Sept 6 last year.

They had more drinks at another coffeeshop, and were joined by Anathan and Sunder.

They drank till about 10pm before they decided to go to a coffeeshop at Redhill Close as Thiagu had to work at the location. Mr Krisnan, Anathan and Kirubakaran continued drinking.

At about 11pm, a quarrel broke out between Mr Krisnan and Anathan. Kirubakaran hit Mr Krisnan's face twice with his belt. Mr Krisnan was bleeding and rested his head on the table while the rest continued drinking.

Subsequently, Anathan and Kirubakaran apologised to Mr Krisnan. All five returned to Pearl's Centre where they had more drinks at the carpark on the 11th floor. By then, Mr Krisnen was very drunk. He lay down on the mattress and did not drink.

A short while later, Kirubakaran had a dispute with Mr Krisnan. Both challenged each other to a fight. Kirubakaran punched Mr Krisnan twice on the face and the latter fell. Kirubakaran then told the rest to beat him up. They kicked and punched him and used a dustbin to hit him a few times.

After the assault, Mr Krisnan stumbled onto the mattress nearby and lay down. Kirubakaran then removed his phone and ATM card.

The group continued drinking. Later when they tried to wake Mr Krisnan up, they realised he was dead. They panicked and left Singapore via Woodlands checkpoint at 4.20am.

A post-mortem showed 63 external injuries on Mr Krisnan 's body. He died from crush injuries of larynx and had extensive and multiple cuts and abrasions on his head, face, arms and legs.

His blood-alcohol level was 235mg/100ml, about than three times the legal limit.

Each of the three who assaulted him could have been jailed for up to 10 years, fined or caned.