Indian national fined over Rs 25K for defecating at Marina Bay Sands entrance in Singapore

PTI, Sep 20, 2024, 11:32 AM IST

Singapore: A 37-year-old construction worker from India was fined SGD400 on Thursday for defecating on Oct 30 last year at the entrance of ‘The Shoppes’ mall at Marina Bay Sands, a casino resort.

Appearing in court, Ramu Chinnarasa pleaded guilty to one charge under the Environmental Public Health (Public Cleansing) Regulations, reported TODAY newspaper.

An image of him committing the act went viral on Facebook last October, garnering more than 1,500 likes, 1,700 comments and 4,700 shares in about two days.

Before that, Ramu had drunk three bottles of hard liquor and was gambling inside the Marina Bay Sands casino, according to TODAY report.

At about 5 am, he left the casino. He wanted to relieve himself but could not go to the toilet because he was still heavily intoxicated.

So, outside a restaurant near the entrance of Marina Bay Sands at 7:01 am, Ramu took off his pants, squatted and defecated on the floor.

He then left the building and slept on one of the stone benches outside Marina Bay Sands until about 11 am, before returning to his dormitory in Kranji.

Deputy Public Prosecutor (DPP) Adelle Tai said that a security officer at Marina Bay Sands saw a post containing a video of Ramu defecating later that day and made a police report.

The prosecution told the court that Ramu had left Singapore on Oct 31 last year and returned “sometime later.”

On June 4 this year, he tried to enter the same casino and was detected as an “undesirable guest.” A police report was made and he was arrested.

In response, District Judge Christopher Goh Eng Chiang said, according to TODAY: “Do you know how to get the lowest fine? Don’t do this in public.” “Better still, don’t get yourself so drunk that this happens. I want you to know if this happens again — I hope not — the fine will be higher than today,” the Judge said.

DPP Kiera Yu called for a fine of SGD 400 to SGD 500, noting that Ramu had defecated in public for about 10 minutes.

“The offender did not make any attempts to clean up after himself, nor did he inform any cleaners of the act.

“If not for the fact that his offence was filmed by a member of the public and subsequently discovered by the MBS security team, the offender’s faeces would be left in the open for an extended period of time, in a public shopping mall with heavy foot traffic,” DPP Yu added.

She also said that the damage to public cleanliness was “significant.”

Any person found guilty of defecating in a public place that is not a sanitary convenience for such purpose can be fined up to SGD 1,000 for the first offence, and to a further fine of up to SGD 100 for every day the offence continues after conviction.