Two men convicted of 2017 gang robbery of S$300,000 from shophouse in Little India

SINGAPORE — Two men were convicted on Friday (Dec 24) of taking part in a gang robbery at a shophouse in Little India in 2017, during which they stole S$300,000.

Thava Kumaran Ramamutty, 37, and Muhammad Ridzuan Bin Mohammad Yusof, 32, were both found guilty after contesting two charges each of housebreaking by night and robbery.

On Dec 11, 2017, Thava, Ridzuan and three accomplices targeted four Bangladeshi nationals who were conducting an illegal remittance scheme.

At about 3am, the robbers broke into the shophouse with a key obtained from an informant. 

They posed as police officers from the Criminal Investigation Department and confronted the victims at the shophouse along Rowell Road.

They restrained the four victims and stole the sum of cash, which had been collected from fellow Bangladeshi nationals working in Singapore wanting to remit money to their families back home.

The five of them then fled in a rented car with fake license plates.

On Dec 29, Thava entered Malaysia with a 30-day social visit pass and was arrested in Johor Bahru in April 2018 after overstaying his visa.

He was detained by the Royal Malaysian Police with another accomplice, Shanker Maghalingam, who had illegally entered Malaysia via a motorised boat from Changi Creek in Singapore.

The pair were then extradited to Singapore.

Three of the five robbers — Shanker, Juraimi Jupri and Nor Mohamad Azril Sajali — have pleaded guilty to their offences. 

Another three accomplices have also pleaded guilty to renting the getaway car and affixing the fake license plate to it. They are: Valerie Emmanuelle Ramanee, Udaya Kumar Manoker and Mohamed Safit Hasan Mohamed Ayub.

Their cases have all been dealt with and Thava’s and Ridzuan’s cases are the last two pending before the courts. 

The pair will return to court on Jan 25 for mitigation and sentencing.

Two of the men who ran the illegal remittance business — Alamgir Md and Sikder Sujan — have also pleaded guilty to providing the unlicensed service.

NO WAY ROBBERS WOULD INVOLVE INNOCENTS: JUDGE

During the trial, Thava and Ridzuan said they were not aware of any planning for a robbery and were at the shophouse that night to escort a “safe box”.

Yet, Principal District Judge Toh Han Li on Friday noted that Ridzuan, in his own evidence, had said that he lost track of a paper bag of money when they switched cars. The judge said this would not be believable if he had indeed been tasked to escort the valuables.

The judge also noted inconsistencies between Ridzuan’s statements to the police and his later statements which sought to distance himself from being in the room where the money was stolen from.

As for Thava’s case, the judge said that there was no reason for him to overstay for such a long period in Malaysia without renewing his social visit pass.

That he had left Singapore even before the police were looking for him, the judge added, is “an inference of a guilty mind”.

The judge said: “It was simply not credible that the three robbers would involve two innocents (namely Ridzuan and Thava) who were not clued in or involved in the planning of the robbery and had no inkling that a robbery or anything illegal would be committed.”

For housebreaking by night, an offender may be jailed up to three years and fined. For gang robbery of five or more people, each offender could be jailed between five and 20 years and caned at least 12 strokes.