Punggol Field murder: Mother of 20-year-old accused claims son has mental problems

The accused will be remanded for psychiatric evaluation for three weeks.

Zhangxin Zheng | May 17, 2020, 06:04 PM

A 20-year-old Singaporean man was charged in court with murder on Sunday morning, May 17.

The accused, Surajsrikan Diwakar Mani Tripathi, was arrested by the police on May 16, at 2:45am.

The accused had allegedly stabbed a 38-year-old man at Punggol Field Road on May 10 at about 11pm.

The deceased is 38-year-old Tay Rui Hao, who succumbed to injuries and died in Sengkang General hospital subsequently.

Preliminary investigations showed that the accused allegedly acted alone and was not known to the victim.

Mother of 20-year-old says son has mental problems

The Chinese evening daily, Shin Min Daily News, reported that it understands that Surajsrikan claimed that he was heading out for a run that evening when the incident happened.

However, it was unclear why he brought along a knife with him and eventually stabbed Tay who was jogging along Punggol Field Road.

Shin Min also wrote that it understands that the accused returned home and rarely stepped out of the house after the incident that night.

The police arrested Surajsrikan at home about five days later, near where the incident happened.

A resident living at the same block as the family told Shin Min that residents saw the police entering a unit in the wee hours.

Shin Min reported that the family members of the arrested man looked haggard and appeared to have cried before that.

The accused's mother claimed that the 20-year-old has mental problems but did not elaborate further.

Shin Min reported that the mother also said that her son stopped schooling at primary school level and did not serve National Service, but she had written on Facebook in May 2018 that her son was enlisting.

The accused had also hit his siblings before, according to a post by his mother in September 2019.

Another resident whom the reporter spoke to said that Surajsrikan will usually smoke at the staircase near his unit, but he was not seen doing so in the past few days.

The resident added that Surajsrikan's family would usually keep their door open but it was unusually quiet these days.

Neighbours also said that while they live harmoniously with the family, they could hear quarrels coming from the house occasionally.

Surajsrikan's mother did not appear in court as she just had a surgery recently.

The prosecution applied for Surajsrikan to be remanded for psychiatric evaluation for three weeks, which the judge granted in court on Sunday.

He will be remanded at Changi Prison Complex Medical Centre, and is due to return to court on June 5.

Victim's father devastated, says son's death is an injustice

The victim's father spoke to another Chinese evening daily, Lianhe Wanbao, on May 12 before the arrest of Surajsrikan.

Tay's father said that the deceased was a manager at a sports apparel store.

Tay had been staying at home since the start of the circuit breaker period and would head out for a run two to three times a week before the tragedy happened.

On May 10 evening, Tay went for a run as usual.

Tay's father said that when he first learnt from Tay's wife that his son was hospitalised, he thought Tay was involved in a traffic accident.

The father then rushed to the hospital to see Tay and found out that Tay was stabbed and suffered serious injuries.

Tay's father was devastated and said that it is an injustice for Tay to die at such a young age.

He also described his son as mild-mannered and would not offend anyone when he was alive.

Neighbours also described Tay as a friendly person, according to Wanbao, while Tay and his wife were said to have been very loving.

Top photos via Surajsrikan's and Tay's Facebook