Here’s an example that even brainy folks do the most stupidly horrible things — an Indonesian PhD student has been convicted and sentenced to jail for outraging a fellow commuter on an MRT train.
26-year-old National University of Singapore (NUS) student Irfan Syanjaya was sentenced to six weeks in jail after a two-day trial, The Straits Times reports. At the time of the offence, he was doing a PhD in electrical and computer engineering at the university.
He boarded a crowded Jurong East-bound train at Buona Vista MRT Station in August last year during the evening rush hour, and stood close behind a 20-year-old female student. As the crowds dissipated, Irfan continue to stand uncomfortably close to the victim even though there was ample space.
The victim then confronted Irfan, and other commuters came forward to help before security officers detained him at Jurong East MRT.
In court, Irfan maintained that he had touched the victim accidentally despite initially admitting to the police that he intended to touch her. According to him, he assumed that the victim was fine about him standing so close to her.
Three witnesses who were in the same carriage testified in court that the PhD student was noted to be persistent in making deliberate contact with the victim even after she tried to avoid him. One had even tried to stop it from happening by putting his bag in between the two, but Irfan — in his determined perversion — continued to be persistent.
The student could have been jailed for up to two years, fined and caned for using criminal force to outrage the victim’s modesty.
Photo: Tuan Minh Pham via Flickr
