SINGAPORE — A district court heard on Tuesday (Feb 22) that rapper Subhas Nair, 29, is set to plead guilty to four counts of attempting to promote feelings of ill-will between different religious and racial groups. He was charged in November last year.

Nair is said to have breached the conditions of a previous police warning over a 2019 rap video he made with his sister Preeti Nair.

Court records showed that, Nair, who is represented by lawyer Eugene Thuraisingam, is scheduled to plead guilty to his alleged offences on April 29.

TODAY last reported that the prosecution was prepared to offer a plea deal to proceed with two charges, with the other two to be taken into consideration during sentencing.

The hip-hop musician, whose full name is Subhas Govin Prabhakar Nair, released his debut album in 2018 titled Not a Public Assembly, which touches on socio-political issues in Singapore.

On Oct 28 last year, the police said in a statement that Nair had allegedly made racial comments and social media posts in three instances in 2021 and 2020.

In doing so, he had breached a 24-month conditional warning that the police had issued to him and his sister on Aug 14 in 2019 over the rap video they made in response to a “brownface” controversy that involved Mediacorp artiste Dennis Chew.

The police had listed three offences allegedly committed by Nair:

1. On July 25, 2020, he posted comments on social media responding to a video of Chinese Christians who had made hateful comments against another community. He allegedly said that Malay Muslims who make the same hateful comments would have been treated differently by the authorities
2. On Oct 15, 2020, Nair was said to have tried to promote feelings of ill-will between Chinese and Indians after he commented on an Orchard Towers murder case on July 2. He allegedly claimed that one of the Chinese accused persons involved in the murder of an Indian man received lenient treatment by the authorities due to his race
3. On March 11, 2021, he allegedly tried to promote feelings of ill-will between Chinese and Indians by showing a cartoon drawing of his Oct 15 social media post during an indoor stage performance, while he was being investigated by the police for that same post

The police said then: “Allegations that the law or law enforcement agencies accord differential treatment based on religion or race are baseless and have the potential to damage religious and racial harmony in Singapore and erode public trust in our law enforcement agencies.”

Under Section 298A(a) of the Penal Code, those convicted of attempting to promote feelings of ill-will between different groups on grounds of religion or race may be jailed for up to three years or fined, or both.