SINGAPORE: A 52-year-old Indian-origin stateless man in Singapore was on Tuesday sentenced to five weeks in jail for hurling racist comments and assaulting staff at a public hospital here. Periyanayagam Appavoo was handed over the sentence by a court here after he pleaded guilty to two harassment charges and one charge of using criminal force, TODAY newspaper reported.
Appavoo shouted and verbally abused a nurse at the Sengkang General Hospital on June 23 where he had gone to seek treatment for double vision, it reported.
"You are a Chinese, Chinese people are stupid. I want an Indian doctor, the same Indian doctor who attended to me previously," he said to the nurse when she tried to take his vital signs. A doctor of Indian ethnicity then attended to him but he complained that she was "too fair" and refused to be examined by her, the court heard.
He then got up from the bed, walked up to a senior staff nurse who was looking after another patient, and tried to choke her with his hand before the security officers stepped in to restrain him. Appavoo was also being investigated for using racist comments against a cashier at a supermarket in April last year when he committed the latest crime.
When asked to not enter from the exit gate of the supermarket, he threatened to beat up the cashier and shouted, "you Chinese people bring COVID into Singapore".