Indian Gets 6 Months Jail For Biting Off Colleague's Ear In Singapore

A 21-year-old Indian national was on Thursday sentenced to six months' jail for biting off a colleague's ear after a heated argument, with vulgarities and punches thrown in the scuffle.

Senthilkumar Vishnusakthi, an electrician at Ty Engineering, pleaded guilty to one count of voluntarily causing grievous hurt to 31-year-old Nesamani Hariharn.

The victim, around 7 pm on February 15, was seated on his bed when Senthilkumar returned to Kallang Dormitory, where both the Indians stayed, in a drunken state, a Channel News Asia report said.

Senthilkumar began loudly talking about the victim spying on him and reporting back to their work supervisor about his poor work performance, as he saw him.

The duo began a heated argument and exchanged vulgarities after the victim, upon seeing Senthilkumar speaking poorly about him, walked over to confront him.

Senthilkumar punched the victim's back and managed to get hold of him in a bear hug from behind.

Other dorm occupants stepped in to restrain Senthilkumar, and the victim managed to flee after the accused bit his left ear, tearing off his left earlobe.

The victim was treated for his injuries and given nine days' hospitalisation leave, but the incident resulted in permanent disfiguration as the earlobe was not restored.

The prosecutor sought six to eight months' jail, noting that Senthilkumar had been voluntarily intoxicated, which is an aggravating factor.

Defence lawyer Gogulakannan Suppayya said his client was grieving over his late father on that day.

The judge noted the injury was "relatively serious" and allowed the jail term to be backdated to February when Senthilkumar was remanded.

For voluntarily causing grievous hurt to another person, an offender can be jailed for up to 10 years and fined or caned

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