SINGAPORE - A rock the size of a fist slammed into his head as shattered glass rained down on him during the riot in Little India on Dec 8, 2013.
Certis officer Nathan Chandra Sekaran, then 34, was surrounded by hundreds of rioters, who were so close he could smell the stench of alcohol on their breaths.
“They were chanting in Tamil, ‘Kill the woman, burn the bus,’” he said. “They told me to leave and said they didn’t want to have a problem with me because I was Indian. But how could I? I told them it was my duty to protect that woman, so I could not go.”
That night, several hundred migrant workers had surrounded a private bus that had run over and killed Mr Sakthivel Kumaravelu, 33, a construction worker from Tamil Nadu in India.
The rioters blamed the bus timekeeper, Madam Grace Wong Geck Woon, and the bus driver, Mr Lee Kim Huat, for the man’s death. They wanted to attack the duo as they holed up inside the bus.
The rioters were especially upset with Madam Wong, because of a rumour she had pushed Mr Sakthivel off the vehicle.
https://www.straitstimes.com/singap...ed-kill-the-woman-burn-the-bus-certis-officer
