Man, 59, charged with murder after fatal fight at Lengkok Bahru

A 59-year-old man has been charged with murder following a fatal fight with his neighbour at Block 55, Lengkok Bahru, near Redhill Road.

Ng Swee Seng appeared via videolink at the State Courts on Wednesday, 22 July 2026, where he was handed one count of murder over the death of Thiyagarajan Karunakaran, also 59.

Police said they were alerted to the incident at about 4.45pm on Monday, 20 July 2026. Officers who arrived at the scene found Thiyagarajan lying motionless at a lift lobby on the 16th floor.

Thiyagarajan was taken to the National University Hospital (NUH), where he later died. Ng was arrested at the scene, and preliminary investigations found that the two men knew each other.

Appearing in court dressed in a red shirt, Ng spoke through a Mandarin interpreter. He told the court: "If I hear sounds, I will scold people."

He added that he had reacted after hearing a voice, though he did not offer further explanation of the circumstances leading to the fight. He will be remanded for medical examination, and the case has been adjourned to 12 August 2026.

Background: a reported long-running dispute

According to The Straits Times, which visited the block on Tuesday, 21 July 2026, blood stains and a bloodied footprint were found along the 16th-floor corridor.

A resident who gave his name as Joel told the newspaper that he learnt of the incident while reviewing security camera footage outside his home, which had captured audio of the two men arguing. The dispute was said to have lasted about three minutes, with one man heard threatening to hurt the other.

Joel, a private tutor, said he had a cordial relationship with Thiyagarajan and that the two neighbours had never got along, with Thiyagarajan reportedly taking the stairs to avoid the other man.

A 49-year-old resident living on the 15th floor, who moved into the block around four years ago, told the newspaper the two men had feuded for a long time and would often argue from around 7.30am. He said he had not spoken to either man, adding: "No one thought it would escalate to this."

Another neighbour, who declined to be named, told the newspaper that a knife had been thrown from the 16th floor and landed in front of a coffee shop below.

The Straits Times reported that the case adds to a series of knife-related fatalities involving neighbours in Singapore over the past year. Police recorded 137 knife-related incidents in 2025, a slight rise from 131 in 2024, according to annual crime statistics released in February 2026.

Similar cases include the death of a 30-year-old Vietnamese woman in Yishun in September 2025, a 21-year-old woman stabbed in Choa Chu Kang in May 2026, and a 70-year-old man killed in a fight in Geylang in March 2026. Each case resulted in a murder charge against the accused.

Under Singapore law, a conviction for murder carries the mandatory death penalty.