Suspended lawyer M. Ravi charged with disorderly behaviour in public and assault
Suspended lawyer Ravi Madasamy, who is also known as M. Ravi, was charged in court on Friday with one count each of assault and behaving in a disorderly manner in public.
The 54-year-old allegedly slapped a man on his left cheek in the vicinity of Yio Chu Kang MRT station at around 5.30pm on Wednesday.
Ravi, who is now in remand, is also accused of shouting loudly while at the station.
Appearing in court on Friday via video-link before District Judge Lorraine Ho, he said that an investigation officer (IO) handling his case had denied him a copy of court documents known as charge sheets, which deprived him of his “right to liberty”.
Ravi also denied all the charges against him.
A police prosecutor told Judge Ho that Ravi had been seen shouting incoherently at the MRT station.
When someone called him by his name, the suspended lawyer responded by identifying himself as “M. Ravi’s sister”, and said he has bipolar disorder.
Judge Ho ordered him to be remanded at the Institute of Mental Health for a medical examination. She added that she was not satisfied that he was fit to enter a plea.
Ravi, who is represented by lawyer Joseph Chen, had his case adjourned to July 28.
Ravi is currently serving the maximum suspension of five years for making “baseless and grave” allegations that undermine the integrity of Singapore’s justice system against the Attorney-General, prosecutors and the Law Society.
The misconduct arose from comments that he made to sociopolitical website The Online Citizen (TOC), as well as comments he posted on Facebook after the Court of Appeal reversed his client’s death sentence in 2020.
Ravi had acted for Malaysian Gobi Avedian in seeking a review of his death sentence for importing 40.22g of heroin.
Gobi first escaped the death penalty in 2017 after the High Court convicted him of a lesser charge and sentenced him to 15 years’ jail and 10 strokes of the cane.
In 2018, the Court of Appeal convicted Gobi of the original capital charge after an appeal by the prosecution. In 2020, the apex court reinstated his initial conviction and sentence in the light of its ruling on a separate case.
Shortly after the apex court’s decision on Oct 19, 2020, Ravi gave an interview to TOC.
He alleged that the Attorney-General had been “overzealous” in prosecuting Gobi, and that the apex court had called into question whether the prosecution had acted fairly.
The next day, then Deputy Attorney-General Hri Kumar Nair wrote to Ravi seeking an apology and a retraction.
Ravi uploaded the letter on Facebook and said he had been instructed by his client to take legal action against the Attorney-General and other prosecutors.
He also said he would start legal proceedings against the Law Society if it failed to “do its part to protect lawyers and the independence of the profession”.
Ravi wrote to Mr Nair, reiterating that he had been instructed to take legal action, and uploaded his reply on Facebook.
The Law Society brought four misconduct charges against Ravi after a complaint by Mr Nair.
A disciplinary tribunal found Ravi guilty of three out of four misconduct charges and ordered him to pay a penalty of $6,000, but the Law Society pushed for more serious sanctions.
He was then handed the maximum suspension of five years by the Court of Three Judges earlier in 2023.
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