{"id":54987,"date":"2026-05-24T18:19:36","date_gmt":"2026-05-24T10:19:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/?p=54987"},"modified":"2026-05-24T18:19:36","modified_gmt":"2026-05-24T10:19:36","slug":"man-jailed-more-than-19-months-for-setting-fire-to-debtors-hdb-flat-almost-killing-family-of-7-singapore-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/?p=54987","title":{"rendered":"Man jailed more than 19 months for setting fire to debtor&#8217;s HDB flat, almost killing family of 7, Singapore News"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p>A Malaysian man who accepted money to set fire to a debtor&#8217;s home in Singapore \u2014 nearly trapping and killing a family of seven inside their HDB flat \u2014 \u00a0was sentenced to 19 months and two weeks&#8217; jail.<\/p>\n<p>Early this month<strong>,<\/strong> Vellu Pillai P Sivakkumar, 33, pleaded guilty to one charge of committing mischief by fire.<\/p>\n<p>A second charge of unlawful imprisonment was taken into consideration during sentencing, reported Shin Min Daily News.<\/p>\n<p>The offence took place in the early hours of Dec 8, 2023, at an HDB block in Tampines, where the victim, a 41-year-old man, his wife, their two young children, his parents and his sister were asleep inside the unit.<\/p>\n<p>According to court documents, the victim was under police investigation for alleged fraud and was facing financial difficulties linked to unpaid debts.<\/p>\n<p>He had also received threatening messages from those he owed money to prior to the attack.<\/p>\n<p>Sivakkumar was recruited in late November 2023 by an unknown individual who offered him $2,500 to harass residents and set fire to their homes, reported the Chinese publication.<\/p>\n<p>Though he initially refused the offer, he came around after being promised a $400 advance payment.<\/p>\n<p>After reaching Singapore from Johor Bahru, he was given the address of the targeted unit.<\/p>\n<h2>How it happened<\/h2>\n<p>On the day of the offence, at about 4.35am, Sivakkumar allegedly siphoned petrol from his motorcycle into a bottle, disguised himself with a hooded top, mask and hat, and used an umbrella while moving through the stairwell to avoid detection.<\/p>\n<p>He also chained the unit&#8217;s metal gate from the outside before setting fire to the entrance and fleeing the scene after photographing the blaze.<\/p>\n<p>Inside the flat, the victim&#8217;s father woke up around 4.40am after detecting a burning smell and hearing a sound outside the unit.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>He discovered the entrance engulfed in flames and alerted the rest of the household.<\/p>\n<p>The victim&#8217;s wife then checked the home&#8217;s security camera system and realised that the unit had been deliberately targeted before immediately contacting the police.<\/p>\n<p>Sivakkumar surrendered to the Malaysian police on Sept 4, 2025, and was handed<strong> <\/strong>over to the Singapore police the same day for investigations.<\/p>\n<p>In his plea, he claimed he committed the offence because his wife was pregnant and he needed money to pay for her medical expenses, reported Shin Min Daily News.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<center><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.asiaone.com\/singapore\/malaysian-man-jailed-fire-scammer-hdb-flat\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Read Full Article At Source <\/a><br \/>\n<center\/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A Malaysian man who accepted money to set fire to a debtor&#8217;s home in Singapore \u2014 nearly trapping and killing a family of seven inside&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":54988,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2611],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-54987","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-buzz-headlines","wpcat-2611-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54987","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=54987"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54987\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/54988"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=54987"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=54987"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=54987"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}