HE WAS upset that his wife brought her boyfriend home.

Mr Ramachandran Sitarengan, 40, then got into a fight with the man.

When he fell to the ground, his wife’s lover, Anpazhakan Raghavan, 42, an air-conditioner technician, pounced on him and bit a part of his left ear off.
Anpazhakan spat it out before leaving the flat.

Doctors said it is unlikely for a person’s hearing to be affected even if the outer ear is lost.

Last week, Anpazhakan pleaded guilty to one charge each of voluntarily causing grievous hurt and possessing an offensive weapon.

He was sentenced to seven years’ corrective training and given eight strokes of the cane.

The court was told that Mr Ramachandran was sleeping when his wife, Madam Magesh Eyamalai, 28, came home with Anpazhakan at 6.25am on June 18 last year.

The couple were drunk at that time.

Mr Ramachandran scolded Anpazhakan for stepping into his flat and the men threw punches at each other.

Madam Magesh tried to restrain Mr Ramachandran, but he ended up falling to the ground.

That was when Anpazhakan bit off part of his ear. The severed flesh measured about 3cm by 0.5cm, and the rest of his ear was left dangling.

Anpazhakan then left the flat at Block 421, Choa Chu Kang Avenue 4. But MrRamachandran identified Anpazkakan at the void deck after the police arrived.

When he was questioned, Anpazkakan admitted to the assault, and remembered biting and ripping off part of Mr Ramachandran’s ear before spitting it out and running away.

Mr Ramachandran and his wife were going through divorce proceedings at that time. He was taken to hospital, where he received stitches. Although Mr Ramachandran did not suffer from hearing loss, the severed part of his ear could not be reattached.

The court was told that he underwent skin grafting about two weeks later. He was given 16 days of medical leave. When contacted, Mr Ramachandran declined to be interviewed.

At 6.20am on November 13, barely five months after the incident, Anpazkakan was arrested outside a pub at Boat Quay for possessing a chopper.

Police officers had heard Anpazkakan referring to an object he was carrying when he was talking to two other men. The police officers suspected that it could be weapon and approached him.

They asked Anpazkakan if he had a knife hidden in his waist. But Anpazkakan was uncooperative.

Arrest

When one of the officers moved closer to him and wanted to check the knife he was concealing, Anpazkakan took out a chopper and threw it towards the Singapore River.

The chopper’s blade was about 15cm-long.

Immediately, the police subdued him and arrested him.

Later that day, when he was searched at the police station, plastic stained with morphine was found on him.

Another charge of possessing an apparatus intended for the consumption of a controlled drug was taken into consideration during sentencing.

Anpazhakan has previous convictions for armed robbery, drug consumption, failing to report for urine tests and burglary.

For voluntarily causing grievous hurt, Anpazkakan could have been jailed 10 years and caned.

For possessing an offensive weapon, he could have been jailed three years and caned.

This article was first published in The New Paper.