SINGAPORE: After hearing that his ex-girlfriend was getting married, a man went to the groom’s home in the early hours of their wedding day in order to start a fire.
Surenthiran Sugumaran, 30, pleaded guilty on Tuesday (Oct 18) to one count of mischief by fire, with a second charge of wrongful confinement taken into consideration for sentencing.
The court heard that Surenthiran discovered through an Instagram post that his ex-girlfriend was getting married the next day.
Out of anger and jealousy, he planned to lock the main gate of his ex-girlfriend’s husband-to-be and set a fire to cause inconvenience to the groom ahead of the wedding ceremony.
Surenthiran filled an empty bottle with petrol and headed to the victim’s home in Jurong West in the wee hours of Mar 12, 2022, dressed in a black hoodie and long pants.
After parking his motorcycle, he drew the hood over his face to avoid being caught on closed-circuit television cameras that were around the lift lobby.
He took the lift to the 12th floor before walking up the stairs to the 13th storey, to avoid detection by police cameras.
At about 4.40am, Surenthiran locked the victim’s main gate with a bicycle lock, before pouring petrol onto a shoe rack outside the unit and setting it on fire.
He then walked down the stairs, took the lift to the ground floor and threw the lighter in the bushes before riding home.
Six pairs of shoes and one pair of slippers were damaged in the fire, with total losses to the victim estimated at about S$410.
The prosecutor sought six to nine months’ jail for Surenthiran, citing the serious danger posed by the offence of mischief by fire.
He said this stems from the “uncontrollable nature of fire”, highlighting that Surenthiran had used an accelerant in the form of petrol.
He had also locked the gate to the house, so if the fire had spread, the result for the residents inside would have been “extremely grave with no accessible route of escape”.
The prosecutor added that the offence was premeditated, pointing to how the accused took steps to obtain the petrol and avoid police detection.
The defence asked for a shorter jail term, asking the court to show mercy and leniency.
Surenthiran will return to court for sentencing in December.
For mischief by fire, he could be jailed for up to seven years and fined.