Punjab-origin Singaporean jailed for hurting religious feelings of bus driver

SINGAPORE: A 53-year-old Indian-origin Singaporean was jailed here on Friday for hurting religious feelings of a person and being drunk in public, according to a media report.

was sentenced to 13 weeks and 12 days after he pleaded guilty to one charge each of uttering words to wound the religious feelings of a person and being drunk in public, The Straits Times reported. Another two charges of harassment and breaching Covid-19 regulations were taken into consideration for sentencing. Singh had been just released from prison on remission from June 29 to August 7 when the incident happened, the report said. On June 30, he was drunk and boarded a public bus, while not wearing a mask over his nose and mouth. On reaching a bus interchange, Jasvinder approached the bus driver and asked him in his ear about his race. After the bus driver told him, Jasvinder began to shout at the driver, calling him a terrorist. He also made references to the driver’s religion and mother. He continued to annoy the driver even after the bus arrived at the interchange about 10 minutes later, shouting at him and challenging him to a fight after alighting. He called the bus driver a terrorist and insulted his religion, the report said. Singh was arrested after the police were called.

On Friday, the court heard that Singh has repeatedly run afoul of the law since 2014.

He was previously convicted of harassment in June, and received a jail term of five months, 10 weeks and two days, with an enhanced sentence of another 18 days. This was backdated to December 8 last year.

Before that, he was jailed for two months and given a 55-day enhanced sentence in April last year. This was for spitting on the floor of a hotel at the airport and shouting, “corona, corona”, after taking food from the hotel’s buffet line and smashing plates when staff stopped him.