Draft:2023 Orchard Road rioting

2023 Orchard Road rioting

Date	20 August 2023
Location	Orchard Road, Singapore
Motive	Over an alleged dispute
Deaths	Mohammad Isrrat Mohd Ismail, 29
Suspects	17
Convicted	Sharvin Jay Nair, 24 AR Ridhwan Abdul Rahim, 21 Mohamad Zachary Danial Mohamad Azhar, 22
Sentence	Sharvin – 12 months and eight weeks' jail and a S$2,000 fine Ridhwan – 18 months' probation Zachary – Eight months and six weeks' jail and six strokes of the cane

On 20 August 2023, a physical altercation took place nearby Concorde Hotel along Orchard Road, Singapore, where more than ten people, at least six of whom were part of an unlawful assembly, were involved. During the fight, two people, aged 23 and 29, were severely injured and sent to hospital. However, the 29-year-old victim, Mohammad Isrrat Mohd Ismail, died in hospital after his arrival. A total of 17 men were charged in court for the rioting incident. Out of all the men indicted, a 29-year-old man faced the most serious charge of murder while the remaining others were charged for lesser offenses of rioting with dangerous weapons and causing hurt with dangerous weapons. As of June 2024, three of the suspects were convicted in relation to the case, while another was acquitted and a third was given a discharge not amounting to an acquittal.

Death of Mohammad Isrrat Mohd Ismail

On the morning of 20 August 2023, at around 6 am, a fight broke out at Concorde Hotel along Orchard Road, caused by an alleged dispute between known persons. More than ten people were believed to be involved and as a result of the incident, two people were seriously injured. The two injured victims were both sent to hospital for treatment. However, one of them, who was unconscious when taken to hospital, died. The deceased was identified as Mohammad Isrrat Mohd Ismail, a Singaporean who was 29 years of age when he died. The other victim, who was 23 years old and whose name was unknown, sustained multiple injuries but was conscious when rushed to hospital.

The scene of crime was cordorned for 14 hours by the police, who conducted their investigations into the case, which was classified as murder. Over 100 exhibits of evidence were gathered from the crime scene. A security officer, who chose to remain anonymous, told the press that the incident likely happened due to a dispute, and he stated that the area itself was often fraught with public disquiet due to constant drunken brawls happening in the area. The case also shocked many foreign tourists who happened to be present in the nearby area, including a South Korean tour group.

According to court documents and news sources in 2024, Isrrat, who was a Singaporean, was a member of the Salakau "369" gang while his attackers were part of the Ang Soon Tong gang. On the day of the incident, one of the attackers, identified as 24-year-old Sharvin Jay Nair, and his group of friends went to a club at Concorde Hotel. At that time itself, the deceased victim Isrrat and his friend Muhammad Shahrulnizam Osman (who belonged to Salakau like Isrrat) arrived at the same club. Isrrat, who used to work at the club as a bouncer, was said to meet up with the staff members of the club and gave them his wedding invitation cards. At around 6am, when the club was approaching its closing hours and the customers were departing from the club, Isrrat and Shahrulnizam allegedly shouted expletives in Malay towards Sharvin's group, whose gang were a rival of Salakau.

This led to Sharvin's group confronting Isrrat and Shahrulnizam, and it sparked a fight, beginning with Isrrat punching one of Sharvin's friends, 29-year-old Asvain Pachan Pillai Sukumaran. The men later shifted to an open area in Kramat Lane, behind Concorde Shopping Mall, and they continued to fight. During the fight itself, Sharvin then punched and kicked Isrrat, and caused him to fall. In retaliation, Shahrulnizam, who kept a bread knife into his pants, brandished it and used it to slash Sharvin's arm, and he also slashed several others in Sharvin's group. Thereafter, Sharvin left the group due to his injuries and together with his girlfriend, Sharvin went to Tan Tock Seng Hospital (where he was later arrested) to seek treatment, and never continued to participate in the assault. He reportedly lied to the hospital staff that he got the wounds from a fall.

During Sharvin's absence, the fight continued on as the commotion lingered on to Concorde Shopping Mall. Shahrulnizam and Isrrat both ran back into the shopping centre to avoid the pursuit of Sharvin's friends, who all chased them into the mall, and while Shahrulnizam escaped into the same club where the incident first happened, Asvain and some of Sharvin's other friends caught up with Isrrat and began to attack him once more. During the assault, Asvain, who was armed with a knife, allegedly stabbed Isrrat multiple times. An autopsy report revealed that as a result of the stabbing, Isrrat had sustained at least ten stab wounds altogether on his back, chest and abdomen, and he also had multiple bruises on his head and neck as caused by the kicks and punches he gotten from the assailants.

Arrests

Soon after the Orchard Road incident on 20 August, two men were arrested at the scene. Later that morning, three men and a woman were apprehended at a car park in Sengkang while five men were also caught at Woodlands Checkpoint. These 11 people were subsequently remanded for police investigations.

During the afternoon, a 27-year-old male suspect was arrested at a hospital where he sought medical help for his injuries. Another male suspect, who was 24 years old (later identified as Sharvin Jay Nair), was also caught at Tan Tock Seng Hospital for his suspected involvement in the fatal assault at Orchard Road. A 30-year-old man surrendered himself to the police on 21 August, a day after the killing occurred.

In total, 14 suspects were apprehended for the Concorde Hotel death case as of 21 August 2023, but there were more subsequent arrests made thereafter.

Criminal charges

On 21 August 2023, three out of the 14 suspects were charged with one count each of rioting armed with a deadly weapon. These three suspects, all male and aged 32, 28 and 25 respectively.

On the same night when the first trio of suspects were charged in court, the police publicly released a media statement, confirming that a preliminary charge of murder would be tendered in court against a 29-year-old man out of the remaining 11 suspects on 22 August 2023. Aside from the 29-year-old, seven more men were scheduled to be charged in court on the same date for lesser offences of rioting and causing hurt, while the other three, two men and one woman who were aged between 22 and 26, were still under investigation.

On 22 August 2023, eight more suspects were charged for their alleged involvement in the killing of Isrrat, and the district judge ordered them to be held in remand at the Central Police Division to assist in investigations. Out of the eight, a 29-year-old Singaporean citizen named Asvain Pachan Pillai Sukumaran, was charged with murder. As for the remaining seven others, 30-year-old Muhammad Shahrulnizam Osman was charged with one count of voluntarily causing hurt with a dangerous weapon. Shahrulnizam, who was Isrrat's friend, reportedly slashed one of the suspects, a 27-year-old man, with a bread knife during the fight. The same person slashed by Shahrulnizam was one of the remaining six suspects who each faced one count of rioting with deadly weapons; the other five were 24-year-old Sharvin Jay Nair and four others aged between 24 and 32. Unlike the others, the man slashed by Shahrulnizam was charged in hospital (where he was warded for his wounds) via the Court Crime Registry Chambers.

Under the law, Asvain would face the death penalty if convicted of murder. For the lesser charges, any of the ten convicted of voluntarily causing hurt with a dangerous weapon can be possibly jailed for up to seven years, fined or caned. An offence of rioting with a deadly weapon could lead to a prison term of up to ten years and caning.

On 25 August 2023, a 32-year-old male suspect was charged with one count of rioting with a deadly weapon. He was the 12th suspect to be charged for the rioting incident.

On 27 August 2023, the first 11 suspects charged were brought back to the crime scene to re-enact the alleged offence and recover exhibits for further investigations. The police prosecutor also sought permission from the courts to remand the 11 men for investigations, as the investigating officers would need to take them out for scene revisits, raids or to recover any exhibits, and the police were able to recover two pen knives and a bread knife, and several more weapons. Asvain was reportedly the first to arrive at the scene while the rest of the suspects came to the scene one by one.

On 29 August 2023, a 24-year-old man became the 13th person to be charged in relation to the case; he was charged with one count of rioting. On that same day, Nair returned to court to face six more charges (including three counts of assault) for criminal cases unrelated to the Orchard Road incident. On 30 August 2023, a 22-year-old accomplice of Shahrulnizam was charged with one count of abetting Shahrulnizam to cause injury while armed with a dangerous weapon. He was also charged with one count of possessing three bread knives in the public.

On 4 September 2023, another friend of Shahrulnizam, who was 21 then, was charged with one count of causing evidence to disappear, as he was alleged to have helped Shahrulnizam to hide the knife used during the incident. Two days later, on 6 September 2023, a 32-year-old man was charged with one count of having a bread knife in his possession at a public place, in relation to the incident at Concorde Hotel.

One day later, on 7 September 2023, a 27-year-old man became the 17th suspect to be charged in court, facing one count of rioting while armed with a deadly weapon.

Some of the accused in this case were released on bail since August 2023; the first three suspects charged were granted bail and released on 28 August 2023, with the bail amount being set at S$50,000. Another six men were granted bail on 29 August 2023 when their cases, together with three others who remained in remand, were mentioned again in court. Given that murder was a capital offence that carried the death sentence, Asvain was not offered bail and remained in remand awaiting trial.

Trial of the suspects

Sharvin Jay Nair

On 25 June 2024, one of the perpetrators, 25-year-old Sharvin Jay Nair, was brought to trial for one count of voluntarily causing hurt to Isrrat, as well as six other charges of voluntarily causing grievous hurt and voluntarily causing hurt in separate incidents in 2022, and one count of unauthorized possession of a stun gun. Sharvin, who was represented by Ramesh Tiwary, pleaded guilty to four charges on that day itself, and therefore became the first to be convicted for his involvement in the murder of Mohammad Isrrat Mohd Ismail, and the remaining three charges were taken into consideration during sentencing.

Prior to his sentencing, Deputy Public Prosecutor (DPP) Kathy Chu sought a sentence of 12 to 15 months and nine to 11 weeks’ jail, and a $2,000 to $3,000 fine for all of Sharvin's offences. She cited specifically in the Concorde Hotel incident, Sharvin was responsible for the bruises found on Isrrat's forearms, neck and head even though he did not participate in the stabbing. In response to DPP Chu's submissions, Tiwary argued in mitigation that the insulting comments made by Isrrat before his death were "racially charged and highly derogatory" and that Sharvin, who made efforts to stay away from gangs in the aftermath, had fully cooperated with the police. After the end of submissions, Sharvin was given a jail term of one year and eight weeks, plus a S$2,000 fine.

A.R. Ridhwan Abdul Rahim

On 6 September 2024, 22-year-old A.R. Ridhwan Abdul Rahim, the second suspect to be brought to trial, pleaded guilty to providing false statements to the police and causing evidence to disappear by hiding the knives used by his co-accused persons in the murder of Isrrat. His sentencing was scheduled to take place in October 2024.

On 14 October 2024, Ridhwan was sentenced to 18 months of probation. During sentencing. District Judge Shen Wanqin described Ridhwan as a young man who "merely taken a misstep in life" as a result of misplaced loyalty on his friends and immaturity, and advised Ridhwan to learn from this ordeal and become a "good and productive citizen".

Mohamad Zachary Danial Mohamad Azhar

On 13 November 2024, 23-year-old Mohamad Zachary Danial Mohamad Azhar pleaded guilty to one count of abetment of the possession of an offensive weapon and another of causing the disappearance of evidence. Zachary was sentenced to eight years and six weeks' jail and six strokes of the cane. Zachary, who was working as a nightclub bouncer at Concorde Hotel when the murder happened, was revealed to be responsible for supplying the knives used in the incident, including one to Isrrat's friend Muhammad Shahrulnizam Osman.

Muhammad Shahrulnizam Osman

On 22 November 2024, 31-year-old Muhammad Shahrulnizam Osman pleaded guilty to two counts of voluntarily causing hurt with a dangerous weapon, and one of abetting the deceased victim Isrrat to possess an offensive weapon. Deputy Public Prosecutor Brian Tan asked for 35 to 39 months’ jail and 12 strokes of the cane for Shahrulnizam, stating that Shahrulnizam had been previously sentenced to reformative training twice for rioting offences, and it was necessary to return with an enhanced sentence on account of Shahrulnizam's act of providing Isrrat with a knife, which ironically engineered his death as the knife given to Isrrat by SHahrulnizam was the same murder weapon that took Isrrat's life.

However, the defence asked for 30 months' imprisonment and 12 strokes of the cane, citing that Shahrulnizam and Isrrat only wanted to protect themselves from the group of defendants charged for hurting and murdering Isrrat, which was the reason for them to possess knives, although the prosecution rebutted that this only showed that Shahrulnizam made the choice to get himself involved in potential acts of violence. Shahrulnizam's sentencing is scheduled to take place on 4 December 2024.

Status of other suspects

It was updated during Sharvin's trial that out of the remaining 16 accused persons, one was acquitted and set free while another was granted a discharge not amounting to an acquittal. Two of the other 13 were convicted and the rest were awaiting trial as of November 2024; Asvain remains facing a murder charge.

See also

• List of major crimes in Singapore