SINGAPORE - A recalcitrant offender was out on bail after committing offences including using criminal force on a public servant when he handed a harpoon to his alleged accomplice. The weapon was later used to stab another man.

S. Mageshwaran had taken the weapon with him to Cuscaden Road on June 3, 2022, before handing it to Sheran Raj Balasubramaniam, 23.

According to court documents, Sheran Raj then used the harpoon to stab a 23-year-old man.

Mageshwaran, 29, pleaded guilty on Monday to multiple crimes including harassment, being in possession of the harpoon and traffic offences. Sheran Raj’s case is still pending.

The Straits Times reported in June 2022 that the assault victim was later found bleeding profusely with the 20cm-long weapon stuck in his back. He was conscious when he was taken to hospital.

Deputy Public Prosecutor Melissa Heng said Mageshwaran was convicted of being in possession of a dangerous weapon in 2019.

Without revealing details, she added that he was later sentenced to three years and three months’ jail and was released in 2020.

He was placed on a remission order, during which he was supposed to keep himself out of trouble from Sept 3, 2020, to Oct 1, 2021.

But Mageshwaran reoffended on Nov 30, 2020, when he used vulgar language against a 33-year-old policeman in Dunlop Street in Little India while drunk.

He was arrested and released on bail.

On June 3, 2022, Sheran Raj asked him if he wanted to go to Candy Bar at Ming Arcade shopping centre in Cuscaden Road.

When Mageshwaran agreed to go, the younger man asked him to take a weapon with him, as fights occasionally broke out at the bar.

Mageshwaran had a harpoon in his possession when Sheran Raj picked him up in a taxi at around 11.30pm.

DPP Heng said: “In the taxi on the way to Candy Bar, (Mageshwaran) handed the tactical harpoon to the co-accused, and the co-accused kept the tactical harpoon in the left pocket of his shorts.

“Thereafter, at about 4.30am outside Candy Bar, the co-accused stabbed (a man) using the tactical harpoon.”

DPP Heng did not disclose the reason behind the attack.

Meanwhile, Mageshwaran got into a dispute with a 22-year-old man in Cuscaden Road, and they shouted at each other.

The younger man’s friends intervened, and his group made up of six other people later went to Labrador Nature Reserve to continue drinking alcohol.

Still unhappy, Mageshwaran retrieved a machete from his mother’s flat before making his way to Labrador Park.

The DPP told the court: “At about 8.45am, the accused committed criminal intimidation on the seven victims by threatening injury to their person, when he charged towards (them)while waving the machete.

“Frightened, the seven victims quickly ran away.”

The police were alerted and officers arrested Mageshwaran soon after.

In an unrelated case, he also committed traffic offences including driving a car without a licence in Yishun in September 2021.

At around 7am on April 10, 2022, his former girlfriend called the police after she was woken up by the sound of somebody shouting outside her flat.

Details about her home have been redacted from court documents.

A 23-year-old policeman and his partner arrived at the scene and saw Mageshwaran lying unconscious outside a flat.

When he regained consciousness, he hurled vulgarities at the officers.

He was arrested and was in a police vehicle heading towards Woodlands Police Division when he spat on the policeman’s left arm. He also shouted obscenities at the officer.

Mageshwaran will be sentenced on Tuesday.