An Indian-origin man in Singapore has been sentenced to 42 months in jail along with two other foreign workers from Bangladesh for stealing copper wires and cables from a vacant college in January, 2020.
Om Shakti Tiwari drove the Bangladeshi duo to the vacant college at night and waited in a rented car. Tiwari later sold 994 kg of electrical cables to a recycler for SGD 3,976, and another 773 kg of cables to the same shop for SGD 3,976. He gave some of the money to the other two accomplices, according to a Channel News Asia report on Wednesday.
After initially intending to claim trial, Bangladeshi national Miah Shobus pleaded guilty on Tuesday to four charges of house-breaking to commit theft.
The court heard that Miah, 32, conspired with fellow Bangladeshi national Jan Shak Mohabbat and entered the main consumer switch room by breaking the padlock.
The trio again returned to another college later that same month and stole more copper wires.
Tiwari later sold the wires at recycling shops and split the money among the three men.
They took more electrical cables including those from the ceilings, the electrical raisers and the air handling unit room.
The police managed to identify Jan through DNA analysis of saliva left on a bottle at Jurong Junior College and traced Miah through police camera image at a public housing estate.
Eyewitnesses spotted Tiwari's vehicle outside the theft locations and the police identified him from there.
The total cost to reinstate the stolen electrical cables at both campuses was SGD 1.24 million, said Deputy Public Prosecutor Ong Xin Jie.
Jan has been sentenced to 34 months' jail. Miah will be sentenced on December 23 when another 10 charges will be taken into consideration.
(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
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