16 years ago in May, appalling crimes took place around the Kallang area in Singapore.
A series of armed robberies, committed by four men from Sarawak, led to three injuries and one death.
Two of the surviving victims, including a National Serviceman, lost four fingers in the attacks.
Source: Google Maps
The four perpetrators were identified as 31-year-old Tony Anak Imba, 22-year-old Micheal Anak Garing, 19-year-old Hairee Anak Landak, and 19-year-old Donny Anak Meluda.
It is known that they were drinking alcohol in Geylang on 29 May 2010 when they decided to commit the robberies.
While three culprits were quickly arrested and charged with murder, the fourth evaded arrest for seven years before finally being caught.
In the early hours of 30 May 2010, 24-year-old Indian national Sandeep Singh was suddenly ambushed by the group at a playground near Block 44 Sims Drive.
Source: Google Maps
Sandeep, a construction worker, was chatting on the phone with family in India when one of the attackers, Tony, struck him from behind with a brick.
Meanwhile, Micheal slashed his head, left forearm, left ear, and back with a parang before robbing him of his phone and wallet.
The assault left the victim with a fractured skull.
Medical experts later testified that while the severe injuries would have caused a fatal brain infection, Sandeep survived thanks to timely medical intervention.
Following the first robbery, the four men crossed paths with 19-year-old Ang Jun Heng near Kallang MRT station.
Ang was heading home alone along a footpath beneath the train tracks when Tony kicked him.
Source: Wikimedia Commons
When Ang tried to fight back, the entire group set upon him with fists, kicks, and a blade.
Ang’s left palm was severely damaged, resulting in the loss of four fingers.
He also suffered severe head trauma alongside a neck wound that stopped just short of his spinal cord.
The full-time National Serviceman was left in an open field for nine hours before being spotted by a pedestrian.
Medical experts later testified that his neck injury could have been fatal.
The third attack happened just 10 minutes after the last.
This time, the men targeted Egan Karrupaiah, a 43-year-old Indian national who worked as a pipe fitter.
Mirroring the previous attacks, Micheal, Tony, and Donny robbed him of his wallet and phone before unleashing a violent assault.
However, Hairee remained a bystander.
The victim survived with several fractures, four severed fingers, and massive lacerations that almost cut both of his arms to the bone.
The robbers’ fourth target was 41-year-old construction worker Shanmuganathan Dillidurai, who they saw cycling towards them near Riverine by the Park condominium.
Source: Google Maps
Tony initiated the assault by knocking Shanmuganathan off his bicycle.
All four robbers then beat him viciously, with Tony pinning him to the ground while Micheal slashed him with a parang.
The assault left Shanmuganathan with a fractured skull, a severed left hand, and a deep neck laceration.
He also sustained a back wound so profound that it shattered his shoulder blade.
Shanmuganathan succumbed to his injuries at the scene. His body was discovered later that morning at 7.30am.
Source: 154thmedia on YouTube
A subsequent autopsy revealed a total of 20 injuries across his body, with four proving fatal.
Shanmuganathan, who relocated from Chennai in 2008 for work, left behind a wife and two children.
Police investigations into the four robberies soon resulted in the capture of Micheal, Tony, and Hairee.
Micheal, Tony, and Hairee were initially charged with the murder of Shanmuganathan Dillidurai.
This carried a mandatory death sentence by hanging under Singapore law at the time.
Eventually, the murder charge against Hairee Anak Landak was reduced to armed robbery with hurt.
He pleaded guilty to this amended charge.
Hairee was also convicted of armed robbery with hurt for the assaults on Sandeep and Ang.
In Jan 2013, he was sentenced to 33 years’ imprisonment and 24 strokes of the cane.
Micheal and Tony similarly stood trial in the later part of 2013, with all three surviving victims testifying against them.
In court, both defendants turned on each other with conflicting accounts of who killed Shanmuganathan.
Micheal claimed he only swung the 58-cm parang safely above the victim’s head.
He then alleged that Tony inflicted the deep cuts after they had fled with the wallet.
Source: Chirayu Trivedi on Unplash. Image for illustration purposes only.
Tony rejected this, testifying that Micheal acted alone in the hacking. He added that he never shared a common intention to violently assault their targets.
Hairee, brought from prison where he was serving his 33-year term, testified that Micheal was the sole person to wield the parang.
However, he stated that Tony pinned Shanmuganathan down and let Micheal continue slashing him.
The Singapore court convicted Micheal Garing and Tony Imba on charges of murder.
The two men received their sentences on 20 April 2015.
The judge justified Micheal’s harsher sentence by pointing out that he had repeatedly used a parang to launch violent attacks.
Source: Singapore Police Force (SPF)
He found the evidence of the previous robberies relevant because those attacks were just as violent as the one that killed Shanmuganathan.
Accordingly, the judge ruled that Micheal’s conduct during the assault spree and the murder justified the death sentence.
In Jan 2017, nearly seven years after the crime, the final suspect, 25-year-old Donny Meluda, was arrested by Malaysian police at Sibu Airport after arriving on a flight from Kuala Lumpur.
Source: Borneo on Facebook
While on the run, Donny had converted to Islam and changed his name to Abdul Rahman Abdullah.
He was held in Sarawak for four days before being handed over to the Singapore police on 18 Jan 2017.
While Donny was initially charged with murder, he was eventually convicted of armed robbery with hurt.
He received 33 years in prison and 24 strokes of the cane — the same punishment given to Hairee Landak.
Donny’s sentencing on 19 Nov 2018 officially brought an end to all court proceedings for the Kallang slashings.
After losing his appeal, Micheal Garing spent another two years and one month on death row. During this time, he converted to Islam and took the name Muhammad Arif Sufi.
In early March 2019, Singapore issued a death warrant scheduling Micheal to be hanged on the morning of 22 March.
His family was given an eight-day notice on 14 March to visit him and arrange his funeral.
Source: Wikipedia
Singapore saw appeals from Malaysia, including one from the Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad, as well as Amnesty International following the news.
The day before the scheduled execution, on 21 March 2019, both the European Union (EU) and the Swiss Embassy in Singapore joined the appeal.
Despite the international protests, President Halimah Yacob rejected Micheal’s request for mercy on the advice of the Cabinet.
On the morning of 22 March 2019, 30-year-old Micheal Garing was executed by hanging at Changi Prison.
Singapore’s Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) defended the city-state’s use of capital punishment, asserting that the judicial process was strictly and fairly adhered to throughout the case.
In a statement carried by The Straits Times (ST), the ministry emphasised that Micheal was accorded full due process under the law and maintained continuous legal representation from the trial stage through to his final appeals.
The MHA had then reiterated Singapore’s firm stance on legal equality, stating:
Our laws apply equally to all, regardless of whether the offender is local or foreign.
The ministry added that all foreign nationals visiting or residing in the country are expected to strictly abide by domestic laws.
According to the MHA, the death penalty remains an integral component of Singapore’s criminal justice system.
However, it is reserved exclusively for the most egregious offenses.
It concluded that every sovereign state retains the inherent right to determine its own judicial frameworks and decide whether to maintain or abolish capital punishment based on its unique domestic circumstances.
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Featured image adapted from Google Maps.