SINGAPORE — Four friends’ night out at the nightclub took an ugly turn after one of them was accused of touching a woman’s hand.

The subsequent scuffle that erupted outside the club left two men who intervened with a nose fracture and missing teeth.

On Friday (Jan 26), Tan Qin Xiang, Joshua Iype Mathew, as well as brothers R Ritchie Vanu and Navin Nigel Vanu were sentenced to jail, after they each pleaded guilty to two counts of voluntarily causing hurt.

Tan, 23, received 3.5 months’ jail while Mathew, 25, Ritchie, 24, and Navin were each sentenced to three months’ jail.

Navin, 28, had an additional four-week jail sentence imposed by District Judge Tan Jen Tse, for a charge of assaulting a police officer in an unrelated incident in 2015.

In the early hours of Feb 13, 2016, the four men were at Bang Bang Club at the Pan Pacific Hotel Singapore.

Another group of three men and a 27-year-old unnamed woman were also at the club.

As the woman’s group was leaving, she felt someone touch her hand. Her friend, 28-year-old Ng Chen Kai, witnessed Tan doing it and confronted him.

Mr Ng slapped Tan, before his group went to report the touching incident to the club’s bouncers.

Navin told the bouncers it was Mr Ng who became aggressive. Tan then shoved Mr Ng and a quarrel broke out.

The two groups were asked to leave the club and barred from reentering.

But another heated argument broke out outside the club as Tan confronted Mr Ng about the earlier allegations. A scuffle ensued.

Two of Mr Ng’s friends - Mr Gabriel Goh Shu Liang and Mr Ong Zhehan – tried to break up the fight but were instead assaulted with punches and kicks by Tan’s friends.

Ritchie and Tan punched Mr Goh in the face, causing him to fall.

According to Deputy Public Prosecutor Dwayne Lum, the victims’ group did not retaliate physically during this assault and only tried to block the attacks.

“The response by Tan and the accused persons was grossly disproportionate to anything that Mr Ng did in the club,” DPP Lum said. “This is not (a case of) a club brawl, this is one-way traffic.”

A taxi driver witnessed the fracas and approached the group. Ng’s group fled.

A medical examination showed Mr Goh to have fractured his nose, and Mr Ong to be missing a tooth. They were both given medical leave.

The court heard that the four accused persons compensated their victims’ medical bills which amounted to more than S$6,700.

The District Judge noted the “brute violence involved” and the severe injuries sustained, but acknowledged the compensation to their victims as “a sign of remorse”. He said Tan was of higher culpability.

The four men will start serving sentence on Feb 2.