A chemical surveyor, who unlawfully let off fireworks in Yishun last November and then tried to implicate another man as the culprit, has become the third person in recent weeks convicted of such an offence.
Separate cases - all of which took place in November last year - involving three other men are pending.
Jeevan Arjoon, 29, was jailed for three weeks and fined $5,000 yesterday after pleading guilty to one count each of letting off the fireworks and giving false information to a police officer.
The court heard that last November, he went to a Deepavali bazaar in Little India and was alone when he bought an assortment of fireworks from an unknown seller.
He then drove off to meet his family and friends at a playground near Block 513A Yishun Street 51. At around 3.30am on Nov 6, he took them to a nearby open field and set off the fireworks.
Deputy Public Prosecutor Jean Goh said that based on witness accounts, the fireworks were loud enough to be heard from the surrounding Housing Board blocks.
The illegal fireworks display lasted around five minutes. No one was hurt and no property was damaged.
A resident alerted the police and Jeevan was interviewed at Ang Mo Kio Police Division the next day.
He later told Inspector Lim Jing Xiang that a 32-year-old man known as Mattavan Michael Douglas was the one who bought the fireworks.
DPP Goh said: "The accused admitted that he had done so in order to push the blame for his offence to Michael and to exact revenge... because he felt that Michael had sabotaged him by telling police that the accused was the one who had set off the fireworks on Nov 6, 2018."
Court documents did not state if Mr Mattavan had indeed informed the police about Jeevan's actions. The documents also did not give details about the two men's relationship.
On March 15 this year, a father-and-son pair admitted being behind a pyrotechnics display in Bukit Batok on Nov 6 last year.
Cleaner Alagappan Singaram, 54, was fined $5,000 after pleading guilty to discharging the fireworks. He was the first person to be convicted of the offence under the Dangerous Fireworks Act. His son, A. Hariprasanth, 19, admitted to a similar offence and is expected to be sentenced next Tuesday.
Jeevan, Alagappan and Hariprasanth were among six Singaporean men charged last November over illegal fireworks. The other three are Elvis Xavier Fernandez, 26, Thiagu Selvarajoo, 30, and Siva Kumar Subramaniam, 48. Their cases are pending.
Those convicted of discharging dangerous fireworks can be fined between $2,000 and $10,000 and jailed for up to two years.
