Dispute over banana turns ugly, leads to extra sentences for inmate
This inmate from Admiralty West Prison takes bananas really seriously — so much so that he went bananas over a banana.
Inmate Muhammad Fazil Salleh quarrelled with fellow inmate, Puspanathan Ramachandran after the latter grabbed an extra banana at lunch.
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During the argument, Fazil slapped Puspanathan, kneed him in the chest, and proceeded to kneed him in the face after Puspanathan fell.
The victim sustained injuries consisting of a fractured nasal bone, jaw and eye-socket as well as broken teeth. Ouch.
He had to be sent to Changi General Hospital where he underwent an operation with general anaesthesia. After 6 days he was discharged and given two months’ worth of hospital leave.
Extra jail term for a banana — was it worth it?
Fazil was given an additional three years’ jail, six strokes of the cane and 59 days’ enhanced imprisonment — when he initially only had to serve a one-month jail sentence for theft.
That means the extra banana cost him 3 years and 2 months.
Looks like Fazil is a classic bad luck Brian.
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Okay, maybe it was not solely the banana’s fault. District Judge Jasvender Kaur passed the verdict yesterday (10 Feb) after taking into consideration the prison attack on 3 April last year, as well as for another offence of stealing shaving blades from a FairPrice supermarket in Sep 2015 while under remission order. Further, he also committed a third charge of theft last November.
In 1999, he was also found guilty for a similar prison attack causing grievous hurt.
Was it Amos Yee?
While some speculated that the inmate who went bananas might be Amos Yee…
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…others were more in the know about his whereabouts.
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Meanwhile, this netizen has a rational explanation for this illogical matter.
He said that it was “not about [the banana] but “self pride [and] esteem”, which kinda makes sense.
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Give this guy a banana break?
Is an extra banana for three extra years of sentence worth it?
This guy seems to have overreacted and caused a huge amount of damage and does have a track record of hurting others.
Thus, the court is wise to take into consideration that this case wasn’t about a single banana.
Or is it?
Featured image via Voanews
With reference to The Straits Times, The New Paper
