Singapore: An Indian origin man has been jailed for four weeks and fined SGD 4,000 for having hurled racial slurs and throwing a tip box at a cashier in a café. Rishi David Ramesh Nandwani, 27, on Monday pleaded guilty to one charge of using insulting words and one charge of a rash act that endangered the victim’s safety at the café in an upmarket shopping conclave of Holland Village.
Two similar charges were considered in sentencing. Rishi appeared in court through video link from his place of remand, according to a Channel News Asia report. The incident happened on October 31, when the cafe was crowded and children were present. The court heard that at about 12.20 pm, Rishi stood in front of the counter under the mistaken belief that he was joining the queue to place an order.
He was actually at the wrong end of the queue. When he stepped in front of the cashier and tried to order, she informed him of this and asked him to go to the back of the queue and wait for his turn. Rishi got upset at the cashier’s refusal to serve him. He launched into a two-minute tirade against her, which included racial slurs against Chinese people.
He also hurled vulgarities and said that he was “sick of this country”. He continued to hold up the queue and refused to go to the back of the line. His insults distressed the victim. She disengaged by stepping away and turning her back to him to let her superior speak to him instead. Rishi continued shouting at the victim. He then picked up a tip box on the counter and threw it at her, hitting her lower back.
He went back to his seat and fumed for a few minutes, before returning to the counter and throwing two serving trays that missed the victim. He continued to shout vulgarities and slurs at her before eventually leaving the cafe. Rishi was arrested about an hour after the victim called the police to report a “raging” customer.
Videos of his tirade and him throwing the tip box were played in court. They showed many customers standing in the queue and watching in silence as he shouted. In sentencing, District Judge Janet Wang said that Rishi’s offences caused public disquiet and that the law recognises the need to protect service staff from abuse.
