SINGAPORE – Yet another noise dispute between neighbours ended badly, this time with a man smearing luncheon meat near a woman’s flat after he got upset with her children playing outside his unit.
Vikneswaran V. Moganaval, 36, was living in a Woodlands Housing Board flat when he became upset with the woman’s two children, aged four and seven, for playing along the common corridor on Deepavali on Oct 20, 2025.
Deputy Public Prosecutor Chong Kee En said Vikneswaran knew that the woman and her family are Malay-Muslim, and that consumption of and contact with pork are forbidden in Islam.
DPP Chong said Vikneswaran wanted to throw luncheon meat at the woman’s flat but refrained from doing so. Instead, he took a tin of luncheon meat, opened it, poured the contents into the common corridor and smeared them across the floor of the corridor.
On Feb 11, Vikneswaran was sentenced to 14 weeks’ jail after pleading guilty to one count of wounding the religious feelings of the woman and her family – an offence under the Maintenance of Religious Harmony Act.
He also admitted to an unrelated harassment charge after he hurled vulgarities at an emergency communications officer from the Singapore Police Force in February 2025.
Court documents stated that Vikneswaran had earlier engaged the Community Policing Unit (CPU) over the noise dispute, and initially felt that the situation had improved.
But he got upset when the woman’s children played along the corridor again on Oct 20, 2025.
DPP Chong said Vikneswaran felt aggrieved as he celebrated Deepavali, and had claimed to have cancelled a gathering he had planned at home.
He contacted the CPU at around 7.30pm, and the children returned home 15 minutes later.
CPU officers, who arrived soon after, spoke to him and the woman before leaving.
Still fuming at around 9pm, Vikneswaran smeared the luncheon meat on the floor of the corridor, near her home.
At around 10.15pm, he called the police, saying: “I feel like throwing luncheon meat at my neighbour’s unit. I need police.”
He even told officers who arrived at the scene that he would throw luncheon meat at the woman’s flat after they left.
They warned him not to do so and told him to remove the luncheon meat from the corridor, but he refused.
Vikneswaran also said he wanted the woman’s children to step on the meat so they would return home with pork on their footwear and the family would then get “bad karma”.
The police then alerted the town council.
The next morning, the woman and several members of her household, including her children and spouse, walked over the meat.
DPP Chong said the common corridor was the family’s only access to a lift, and a town council cleaner cleared up the luncheon meat later that morning.
Vikneswaran was arrested that day.
A repeat offender, he had been sentenced to a week in jail after making a nuisance call to a 995 emergency phone line in February 2023.
In May that year, he verbally abused a police officer and was ordered to spend 10 days behind bars.
Vikneswaran completed his sentence in August 2023, only to reoffend in February 2025 when he dialled 999 and used vulgar language to abuse an emergency communications officer who took his call.
Responding to questions in Parliament relating to neighbour disputes, Senior Minister of State for Law Murali Pillai
said in 2025 that the top three types of disputes handled by the Community Disputes Resolution Tribunals (CDRTs)
over the past five years related to excessive noise, excessive vibration and littering.
Referring to a
murder that allegedly resulted from a noise dispute
between neighbours in Yishun Central on Sept 24, 2025, Mr Murali said some Singaporeans were understandably concerned.
He added that the Government will continue to strengthen processes to manage neighbour disputes.
CDRTs are specialised courts that handle persistent disputes between neighbours after other resolution attempts, such as mediation, fail.
A total of 1,031 CDRT claims were filed between 2020 and 2024, and about 65 per cent of these involved excessive noise.
The CDRTs issued 233 orders and dismissed 145 cases, while another 651 claims were withdrawn or discontinued.
Mr Murali said government agencies will expand the application of the enhanced Community Disputes Management Framework soon, so that more cases can benefit from mediation and direct intervention from the Community Relations Unit (CRU).
CRU officers can compel parties to go for mediation at the Community Mediation Centre.