Singapore: Indian National Gets '9 Month' Jail Term For Breaching Covid Protocols

The foreign national, was found to have "adjustment disorder with mixed disturbance of emotions and conduct" around the time of his offences in May last year.

File Photo.

Singapore: Those who are taking Covid-19 protocols lightly, then here is a reminder! The case pertains to Singapore where a 26-year-old Indian national has been sentenced to nine months' jail for trying to leave the country during the peak of the pandemic and was asked to wait in a hospital for the results of his swab test.

How did the Indian national break the law?

Balachandran Parthiban's was tested positive for Covid-19 after the Indian national was picked up by the police at Changi Airport and brought back to Singapore General Hospital (SGH), as per PTI report.

Parthiban, who reached the Terminal 1 of the Changi Airport in public transport also tried unsuccessfully to buy a ticket to India, was found loitering at the airport for about four hours, according to TODAY newspaper.

Parthiban was a resident of the Jurong Penjuru dormitory for foreign workers, which had acquired the status of an isolation area on April 18 last year to curb the infection

Not just this, he once again breached an isolation order and reached the airport in a bid to fly back home. He has been pleaded guilty in May on a charge of exposing others to the risk of Covid-19 and leaving an isolation area without permission. His pro bono lawyer Cory Wong also requested to keep him in the Institute of Mental Health (IMH) for psychiatric evaluation.

After a nearly four-week stay in IMH, the accused was found to have "adjustment disorder with mixed disturbance of emotions and conduct" around the time of his offenses in May last year.

It is when Dr. Stephen Phang said that the "minor" mental disorder did not make him renounce his capacity to assume mental responsibility for his actions. Even with the minor mental disorder he retained the mental capacity to understand right and wrong and was not of unsound mind, the psychiatrist added.

However, his subsequent psychiatric history showed that he later developed full-blown "schizophreniform psychosis, which was likely to have been reactive to, and became worse by the ongoing stress of being held under conditions of security, together along with the concerns about his family situation back in India", Dr. Phang's medical report stated.

According to the report, Parthiban during his stay in IMH said he has been hearing voices instructing him to commit suicide which made it difficult for him to control his actions. He remains under a reduced dosage of antipsychotic medication as he is clinically well, the psychiatrist added.

Deputy Public Prosecutor Norman Yew has demanded for 10 months'' jail for Parthiban, while Wong asked for six-and-a-half months'' jail. While sentencing, District Judge Ronald Gwee considered two other charges -exposing others to the risk of infection and of using insulting words towards a health officer. For each charge of breaking Covid-19 laws, Balachandran could have been jailed for up to six months or fined up to SGD10,000, or both.