SINGAPORE — Angered by a dispute with his employee over owed salary, a construction company boss swung an iron bar at the worker, wounding him on the head.

On Friday (Aug 19), Ho Seow Gai, 67, was jailed for three weeks after he pleaded guilty to voluntarily causing hurt to Mr Mia Rashed, a 39-year-old Bangladeshi.

Mr Rashed was an employee of Ho’s eponymously named Ho Seow Gai Construction at the time of the assault on Feb 12 last year.

THE CASE

On Feb 11, Mr Rashed told Ho that he wanted his salary to be paid and the older man replied that he would pay him the next day.

Mr Rashed repeated his request the next day and Ho said that he would meet him in person at an industrial site in Sungei Kadut to discuss the matter. It was not stated why he had chosen this location in the northern part of Singapore.

When the pair met, they got into an argument. Eventually, Ho seized an iron bar weighing close to 500g and began to attack Mr Rashed with it.

The first blow hit Mr Rashed on the head, while the second struck his hand, which he was using to defend himself.

The attack left Mr Rashed bleeding and shouting for help, which attracted the attention of another man who came to his aid.

Ho then stopped his attack, cleaned the blood off the floor and left the premises before the police arrived.

Mr Rashed was taken to Ng Teng Fong General Hospital, where he was found to have a 2cm-long wound on his forehead and a shallow cut on his palm.

The court heard that Ho paid for Mr Rashed’s medical bills, which amounted to more than S$2,000.

Deputy Public Prosecutor (DPP) R Arvindren, who sought a jail term of between three and five weeks, said that although the injuries were “fairly minor”, Ho had targeted a vulnerable part of Mr Rashed’s body.

Moreover, Ho had used an iron bar, which the prosecutor described as dangerous.

“The dispute was over salary and the accused did not need to resort to threats or violence,” he added.

In pleading for a lighter sentence for his client, Mr Anil Singh of Kerta & Sandhu LLC said that the incident was “one-off” and “out of character” for Ho because he had never shown any propensity for violence.

The lawyer added that Ho was “the very person that allowed Rashed to change for the better” after the younger man was found to have been in possession of duty unpaid cigarettes.

“(Ho) is sympathetic in nature, he was unable to hold his emotions when unpleasantries were uttered,” Mr Singh said.

Ho was allowed time to get his affairs in order and will begin his sentence on Aug 23. His son and bailor posted a bail amount of S$5,000.

For voluntarily causing hurt, he could have been jailed up to three years or fined up to S$5,000, both.