SINGAPORE: The director of a building demolition company was jailed for five days on Friday (Jun 30) for trying to get his worker to lie about his presence at a worksite where another worker was electrocuted to death.
Tan Teik Soon, 53, did so as he feared that he would get into trouble with authorities and be implicated in the death of the worker.
Tan pleaded guilty to one count of attempting to obstruct the course of justice, with a second charge of lying to a police officer taken into consideration.
The court heard that Tan was the director of Beng Heng Engineering. On Jul 15, 2019, Tan and his employees were at a construction site at 16 Amber Road performing demolition works.
Tan was at the site operating an excavator, while his employee, 32-year-old Bangladeshi national Howlader Sanowar, was assisting him by spraying water in the air to remove dust.
Elsewhere at the construction site, 26-year-old Miah Mohammad Shorif was operating a recycled concrete aggregate (RCA) machine.
He went to obtain a power cable, which was connected to a socket-outlet assembly, and was observed inserting a screwdriver into the industrial plug of the extension cable.
He suddenly collapsed and later died from electrocution. Other workers rushed to attend to him, and paramedics flagged the case to the police.
The police and the Ministry of Manpower commenced investigations into the death.
THE ATTEMPTED LIE
When Tan heard that Howlader had been asked to provide a statement to the police, he told his subordinate to lie to the police that he was not present when the deceased collapsed.
However, Howlader did not comply with Tan’s instructions.
The prosecutor sought one to two weeks’ jail, saying the workplace fatality was of a grave and serious nature.
The deceased was Tan’s employee, and Tan should have given his full and frank cooperation with authorities, instead of distancing himself from the incident and thwarting investigations, said Deputy Public Prosecutor Sarah Thaker.
Tan has a previous conviction in 2009 for causing death by a negligent or rash act, which has since been rendered spent, she said.
Defence lawyer S Balamurugan of K&L Gates Straits Law asked for a high fine instead.
Mr Balamurugan said his client had been the director of his company since 1996. Tan works with his foreign workers at construction sites and this was his first work-related death in the company.
He said Tan accepted his culpability and was not running away from liability, but said it was not crucial for Tan to be present at the worksite.
This was not a case where Tan instructed Howlader to assume criminal liability on his behalf, added the lawyer.
Mr Balamurugan said the deceased’s family was compensated through Tan’s insurer and by Tan himself. Tan continues to face scrutiny among his industry partners, said the lawyer.
The penalties for intentionally obstructing justice are a jail term of up to seven years, a fine, or both.