SINGAPORE — What started as an argument over a liquor bottle on the floor took a bloody turn, leaving one man dead and another seriously injured after a brawl.

On Tuesday (Sept 11), Shawalludin Sa’adon, a former waiter at a club in St James Power Station, pleaded guilty to one count of voluntarily causing grievous hurt to Satheesh Kumar Manogaran. Satheesh later died from his injuries at the Singapore General Hospital.  

Another count for similar offences will be taken into consideration during sentencing, which will take place at a later date.

Shawalludin is the third person in a group of five arrested in connection with the incident and prosecuted.

Muhammad Hisham Hassan, 28, and Mohd Firdaus Abdullah, 21, have already been convicted of harbouring one of the co-accused, Muhammad Khalid Kamarudin, 22, who was charged with murder.

A fifth person, Muhammad Faizal Md Jamal, faces charges for voluntarily causing grievous hurt with a dangerous weapon.

The court heard on Tuesday that on March 12 last year, Shawalludin was working as a waiter at Postbar, a club located at St James Power Station near Habourfront.

At about 4.30am that day, he noticed that a liquor bottle belonging to Satheesh, his cousin Naveen Lal Pillar and three other friends was lying on the floor.

Shawalludin told the group that they should not leave the bottle there, and an argument soon broke out between him, Satheesh and Mr Naveen.

His supervisors then asked Shawalludin to step out of the club to prevent further misunderstanding.

Aggrieved by the treatment, he contacted Hisham, and told him to rally members of their secret society group to confront Satheesh and Mr Naveen.

Hisham then contacted Khalid and Faizal. The four men met at the entrance of Postbar at about 5.30am and Shawalludin pointed out Satheesh’s group to them.

They planned to attack the group but were briefly disrupted when approached by two police officers.

After the officers left to attend to another fight, Hisham walked away to call his girlfriend, while the rest of the group approached Satheesh and Mr Naveen, who were walking to their pick-up location for an Uber ride.

Shawalludin initiated the confrontation with Satheesh’s group by calling out “bro, bro”. Khalid and Faizal were a short distance behind him.

Deputy Public Prosecutor Andre Chong told the court: “At this juncture, the (trio) formed the common intention to cause grievous hurt."

An argument ensued between Satheesh and Shawalludin, and Khalid started punching Satheesh’s face. Khalid, who was wielding a foldable knife, then stabbed Satheesh on his forehead, the back of his head, and his back.

Shawalludin, together with Faizal, joined in the fight, punching and kicking a bloodied Satheesh.

Even when Satheesh staggered towards the vehicle, they never relented.

The court was also told that the group had attacked Mr Naveen, who suffered cuts on the back of his head.

Shawalludin went back to work after the attack and washed the blood off his hands. The other attackers left the scene.

He only learnt of Satheesh’s death in hospital from his colleagues, and told Hisham to “run far far”.

Shawalludin was arrested later that day at his flat in Marsiling.

He returns to court on Oct 8 for sentencing.