Singapore: Two Indian origin men get jail for lying on vaccination status

PTI, Apr 28, 2022, 10:28 AM IST

A court here sent two Indian-origin men to five-day jail in a case involving lying about the covid vaccination status to enter a bar.

Utheyakumar Nallathamby, 65, had impersonated as Kiran Singh Rughbir Singh, 37, to enter the bar. Singh told the court that his girlfriend and he had met Nallathamby on September 9 last year, The Straits Times reported.

The trio later went to Sentosa, an island resort, for drinks and decided to go to Bikini Bar, as their first choice, Coastes bar, was crowded.

But an assistant manager of Bikini Bar there did not allow Nallathamby enter as he was unvaccinated.

Deputy Public Prosecutor Shen Wanqin said after leaving Bikini Bar, Singh suggested that Nallathamby enter the bar using Singh’s TraceTogether application and vaccination status.

He further suggested that Nallathamby falsely represent himself as Singh. Nallathamby agreed to the Singh’s suggestions and took the man’s mobile phone.

He then went to Coastes bar with the woman while Singh waited outside. Nallathamby was consuming drinks there when the assistant manager of Bikini Bar spotted the retiree and recalled that she had not allowed him to enter her workplace as he was unvaccinated.

She told her counterpart at Coastes and its operations manager then conducted a check on the phone in Nallathamby possession.

The man then found out that the device belonged to Singh and reported the matter to a duty manager of Sentosa Development Corporation or cheating by personation, an offender can be jailed for up to five years and fined.