SINGAPORE - A 40-year-old contract paint stripper was having a drinking session with four friends on March 4 last year when he shared that his girlfriend was having an affair with Mr Arulkumaran Magalingam, 33.
At around 11pm that night, Subhash Gopinathan Nair, 40, part-time security officer Anbualagan Ramasivam, 43, and three others arrived at the victim's HDB block in Choa Chu Kang Steet 51.
They invited the victim down to the void deck, and while Subhash was talking to him about his girlfriend, the conversation got heated.
Subhash punched the victim in the face, and he threw a punch back. The others joined in. All five began to punch the victim, who ran away.
The group chased and caught up with the victim at the nearby letter box area of the block. There, Subhash threw the victim against the letter box and the staircase railing. The others stopped him.
After they left, the victim went home. He was later conveyed to hospital in an ambulance for injuries on his face, including bleeding in the right eye and a broken nose. He also had acute cervical spine injury.
On Tuesday, Subhash and Anbualagan were jailed for being part of an unlawful assembly to cause hurt to another.
They were given five months and four months respectively after admitting to being with three others in the unlawful group whose common object was to commit an offence of causing hurt to Mr Arulkumaran.
A district court heard that Subhash told his companions he wanted to talk to the victim to bring his girlfriend back. All four decided to join him to go to the victim's residence at Choa Chu Kang.
In the case of Anbualagan, he also admitted to another charge of breaching a personal protection order by using family violence on his 37-year-old wife at their flat in Bukit Panjang Ring Road last Sept 14. He had punched his wife in the face during a heated argument. Two other similar charges were considered during his sentencing.
