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By Chong Shin Yen
SHE left her husband behind in Indonesia to come to Singapore to work as a maid.
While here, she met a Bangladeshi man who became her boyfriend. Then, she began seeing a Malaysian man behind his back.
Thus was sown the seeds of jealousy, betrayal and anger, in the words of a judge, that ended in a violent attack that left the Malaysian blind in one eye.
Joshim Uddin, 35, a Bangladeshi national, had followed his girlfriend, Ms Sarini, a 22-year-old Indonesian, as she went for her late-night tryst with her other lover.
When he saw them being intimate, he flew into a rage and attacked them.
He did not stop even after he had knocked Mr Mohamed Roni Eppendi Edi unconscious.
Mr Mohamed Roni, 21, a Malaysian, suffered a fractured skull and brain haemorrhage as a result. He also became blind in his right eye.
Joshim was jailed five years and four months and given 14 strokes of the cane in June.
He appealed against his sentence but it was dismissed last month.
He had pleaded guilty to one charge of causing grievous hurt with a weapon and another charge of entering Singapore illegally in 2004 by hiding in the back of a lorry.
Another charge of causing grievous hurt to Ms Sarini was taken into consideration during sentencing.
The court heard that Joshim had been in a relationship for two years with Ms Sarini.
But he found out from her friend that she was seeing someone else behind his back. He decided to check if it was true. On 4 Dec last year, at about 11.30pm, Joshim took a taxi to Yio Chu Kang Road, near Gerald Drive, and hid among several lorries along a dirt road.
At about 1am, he saw his girlfriend walking along Gerald Drive and trailed her into a warehouse there.
The warehouse was where Mr Mohamed Roni worked as a general worker. He also doubled up as a night watchman and lived in a shack within the compound.
Joshim saw light coming from the shack and headed there where he saw Mr Mohamed Roni and Ms Sarini lying on the bed.
He observed them and, about an hour later, the couple began caressing each other.
He loses control
Unable to control himself, Joshim took a 60cm-long wooden pole and barged into the shack.
He hit Mr Mohamed Roni on the right side of his head, causing him to lose consciousness and vomit blood.
The wooden pole broke into several pieces but Joshim was not done.
He picked up a pounder and hit Mr Mohamed Roni on the head twice before throwing it on the floor.
He also hit Ms Sarini on her head with the pounder before he left.
Ms Sarini was unable to seek help because the attack left her semi-conscious, with multiple fractures on her face.
Mr Mohamed Roni's boss, who wanted to be known only as Mr Lim, told The New Paper that the couple was found only about six hours later, when one of his drivers turned up for work.
The driver called the police and Mr Lim, who rushed to the warehouse.
Said Mr Lim, 60: 'The mattress they were lying on was blood-soaked and blood was still trickling from his (Mr Mohamed Roni) head.
'He was motionless while the woman was moaning in pain.'
Both were taken to Tan Tock Seng Hospital (TTSH) and warded. Mr Mohamed Roni was there for nine days - including three days in the Intensive Care Unit - before he was transferred to a hospital in Malaysia.
A medical report by Dr Rajagopalan Rajesh from TTSH stated that his blindness was permanent and his condition was unlikely to improve.
Mr Lim, whose company deals in building materials, said Mr Mohamed Roni mostly did manual work at the warehouse.
Mr Lim said: 'He was very hardworking and did not give me any problems. There were also no complaints about him bringing women to the shack.
'I don't know if he was popular with women but he's very handsome.'
He added that Mr Mohamed Roni returned to Malaysia after the attack and stopped working for him.
Lawyer Mr G Dinagaran said in Joshim's mitigation that he had been provoked by what he saw and that culminated in him attacking the couple.
'He had wanted to marry her despite knowing that she was married. He felt a deep sense of betrayal by her,' said Mr Dinagaran.
He added that Ms Sarini's marriage was not happy.
In passing judgment, District Judge Adrian Soon said: 'It is not difficult to see that the seeds of jealousy, betrayal and anger were sown when the accused first heard of his girlfriend having an affair.'
He added that the 'fast and furious' attack was brutal and merciless.
Judge Soon said Joshim had singled out one of the most vulnerable parts of the body - the head - when he attacked Mr Mohamed Roni.
He had also continued hitting him even after Mr Mohamed Roni lost consciousness.
'He had shown no mercy to his girlfriend and her lover, oblivious to the fact that he himself was having an affair with Ms Sarini, who is someone else's wife,' said Judge Soon.
'That showed the cruel streak and cold-bloodedness in his make-up.'
For causing grievous hurt with a weapon, Joshim could have been jailed for life.
For illegal entry, he could have been jailed six months and caned.
This article was first published in The New Paper on Sept 12, 2008.
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