Three men had wanted to celebrate Thaipusam and enjoy some live music, but they ended up causing a ruckus and getting into a scuffle with the police.

Safety officer Gunasegaran Rajendran, 36, was at the Thaipusam procession on Feb 3, 2015, to support his elder brother who was one of the bearers of kavadis - structures of steel and wood.

He and businessman Ramachandra Chandramohan, 35, had engaged a troupe to play urumi - a traditional Indian drum - during the procession. Joining them was operations manager Jayakumar Krishnasamy, 31.

But the musicians were stopped by the police as there was a ban on the playing of musical instruments during Thaipusam at the time.

This upset Ramachandra and Gunasegaran, who shouted at the police, a court heard.

When Staff Sergeant Dennis Lee Aik Seng arrested Gunasegaran, Ramachandra punched him on the lower jaw. Ramachandra also verbally abused Senior Staff Sergeant Azli Othman on two occasions.

The third accused, Jayakumar, tried to stop Senior Staff Sgts Azli and Chew Wei Bin from taking Ramachandra into the police van. He also verbally abused Senior Staff Sgt Azli inside the vehicle.

While the van was travelling from Desker Road to Police Cantonment Complex, Ramachandra kicked Senior Staff Sgt Chew in his lower jaw and verbally abused Senior Staff Sgt Azli in Malay and English, the court heard.

Yesterday, the men were convicted of disorderly behaviour and other charges after a 13-day trial.

Ramachandra was found guilty of seven charges, including assault on three police officers, while Jayakumar and Gunasegaran were convicted of three and two charges respectively.

Prosecution evidence showed that Ramachandra and Gunasegaran perceived the police officers as behaving high-handedly and were "rough, loud and rude". They felt they had been manhandled and treated like criminals.

But District Judge Kessler Soh said: "Police officers were there to maintain public order. In the process, they had to speak with authority and they had to speak loudly at times so that they could be heard."

After having reviewed the evidence and seen the videos, he found that the prosecution had proven the charges against each of them beyond reasonable doubt.

Both Jayakumar and Gunasegaran said they had not intended to create trouble on Thaipusam, a holy festival for the Hindus. Ramachandra said they went for trial to highlight the mistakes of the police.

The trio are likely to be sentenced on March 6.