A 46-year-old supervisor named Ramalingam Kumaresan was sentenced to five months of imprisonment on Friday, September 25, 2026, following a fatal workplace accident on the rooftop of the Singapore Expo. The court heard that the Indian national was convicted of a negligent act under workplace safety regulations after a worker under his supervision died from electrocution while handling solar panels. Both the supervisor and the deceased worker were employed by E-Tech Building Services, where the accused served as a supervisor of the solar panel installation team while the victim worked as a mechanical team member.
The project involved the installation of solar panels across the rooftop of Singapore Expo's Hall 4B, which commenced on April 17, 2023. Two workers from the installation team executed the assembly and electrical connections under the direct instructions of the supervisor. Installation work concluded two days later. On June 1, 2023, the supervisor instructed the installation team to lap and connect looping cables across all installed solar panels. This instruction resulted in a total of 79 solar panels being linked together continuously in a single series.
This setup departed significantly from the official string drawing provided to the team electrician, which explicitly highlighted in color coding that no more than 20 solar panels should ever be connected in a series. Connecting 79 panels in a series created a dangerous electrical load. The supervisor failed to perform the necessary checks to verify that the connections matched the technical drawing, assuming instead that the workers would automatically follow the specifications without oversight. Consequently, the safety hazard went completely unnoticed.
On June 12, 2023, the supervisor instructed the victim and another colleague to carry out housekeeping duties on the rooftop of Singapore Expo Halls 4 and 5. During the task, the victim discovered an exposed, damaged cable originating from one of the solar panels, which had left a visible burn mark on the roof surface. The victim immediately alerted the supervisor, who visited the location and observed the worker holding the damaged cable end. The supervisor advised the worker that he would retrieve the required tools to dismantle the specific panel.
Shortly after the supervisor stepped away, the worker shouted and collapsed onto the roof floor. Emergency medical services were summoned, and the worker was conveyed to a hospital, where he passed away later that day. Subsequent investigations revealed that the worker had picked up the exposed, energized cable with his bare hand while simultaneously touching another part of the roof structure with his other hand. This action completed the high-voltage electrical circuit directly through his body, resulting in fatal electrocution.
During the court proceedings, Ministry of Manpower prosecutor Melvyn Low pressed for a prison sentence ranging from six to eight months, citing the severity of the workplace fatality. Defense lawyer Daniel Tay from BR Law argued for a shorter custodial sentence of three to four months. District Judge Crystal Tan agreed with the prosecution's position that the offense involved high harm and moderate culpability on the part of the supervisor, before handing down the five-month jail term. Following the verdict, the supervisor requested permission to speak with relatives who were present in the courtroom prior to commencing his sentence. Under Singapore law, individuals convicted of committing a negligent act at work that endangers the safety or health of others face a maximum sentence of up to two years imprisonment, a fine of up to 30,000 dollars, or both.
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