In what looks to be one of the more heinous acts of abuse conducted against uniformed officers, a 33-year-old man has been dragged to court for allegedly getting into a hit and run accident with a traffic police officer.
Lee Cheng Yan stands accused of causing grievous hurt to 26-year-old Staff Sergeant Khairulanwar Abd Kahar by committing a rash act along Bedok Reservoir Road around 9:20pm on Friday, The Straits Times reported.
Staff Sgt Khairulanwar had stopped Lee’s vehicle while conducting enforcement checks, and he was approaching the Maserati when it allegedly reversed before accelerating forward, hitting the officer. The cop was said to have clung on to the driver’s door and dragged for about 100m before falling onto the road.
Having suffered serious injuries, he was taken to Changi General Hospital for treatment. ST added that he suffered multiple abrasions and did not sustain any fractures.
A former Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) officer who witnessed the incident managed to tail Lee’s Maserati and provided crucial information on his whereabouts to the police.
That same evening, the authorities promptly arrested Lee in a Geylang Bahru Road HDB flat. His luxury car was found abandoned in Cedar Avenue off Upper Aljunied Road, a kilometer away from where he was found.
Lee was charged on Saturday, and the court heard that he may be involved in other offences as well — including driving while under disqualification.
According to various news reports in the past, Lee has had a long history of traffic offences involving his sports car. An earlier ST report noted that he had been caught eight times between May 2013 and November 2015 for various crimes, and he was caught yet again in May last year when he knocked down a motorcyclist and his pillion rider while driving along Orchard Road.
On July 4 this year, he received a nine-month-long ban from driving. The sentence also included having his Maserati detained by the Registrar for three months.
This case is another grim addition to the jump in abuse against Home Team uniformed officers. Home Affairs and Law Minister K Shanmugam recently highlighted a 65 percent jump in such cases between 2014 and last year, vowing to take action against those who obstruct the work of public servants.
Currently in remand at Bedok Police Division, Lee will return to court on Nov 24. If convicted of causing grievous hurt by performing a rash act, he could receive up to four years in jail and the maximum fine of S$10,000.
