SINGAPORE: Suspended lawyer M Ravi is now accused of slapping a man near an MRT station and disorderly behaviour by shouting loudly in public.
Ravi Madasamy, 54, was charged in court on Friday (Jul 14) with one count of voluntarily causing hurt and one count of behaving in a disorderly manner.
Both charges arise from the same alleged incident, which occurred around 5.30pm on Jul 12 this year near Yio Chu Kang MRT.
Ravi is accused of causing hurt to a man named Sellvaraja T Muniyandi, by slapping him once on his left cheek. He also allegedly shouted loudly.
Ravi, who was previously diagnosed with bipolar disorder, was ordered to be remanded at the Institute of Mental Health for medical examination.
He is due back in court later this month.
If convicted of voluntarily causing hurt, he could be jailed for up to three years, fined up to S$5,000, or both.
The penalties for behaving in a disorderly manner in a public place are a jail term of up to six months, a fine of up to S$2,000 or both for a first-time offender.
Repeat offfenders face double the jail term and a fine of up to S$5,000, or both – Ravi was previously convicted of a similar offence in 2004, his charge sheet stated.
This is the latest of Ravi’s legal troubles. In March, he was suspended from practising as a lawyer for the maximum of five years.
This was for misconduct including making “grave and baseless accusations of improper conduct” against the Attorney-General, officers from the Attorney-General’s Chambers and the Law Society.
Ravi, a lawyer of 20 years, frequently makes the headlines for his behaviour as well as for his representation of those on death row.
He was charged in December 2020 with criminal defamation of Law Minister K Shanmugam, but the Attorney-General’s Chambers later withdrew the charge and Ravi was given a conditional warning instead.
He has also been handed many sanctions for his conduct as a lawyer over the years. These include a 2007 suspension for being rude to a judge and a prohibition from applying for a practising certificate for two years for baseless allegations against a fellow lawyer and the president of the Law Society in 2016.