Man who had caregiver stress gets 8 years’ jail for killing younger brother in Boon Lay flat in 2025
Source: Straits Times
Article Date: 01 Jul 2026
Author: Selina Lum
A psychiatric assessment found that the accused was suffering from adjustment disorder with mixed disturbance of emotions and conduct that included depressed mood state and irritability which impaired his ability to appreciate the moral wrongfulness of his actions in ending the victim’s life.
A 58-year-old man taking care of his younger brother who had many chronic diseases became fed up with the latter’s incessant cleaning of their flat in Boon Lay.
In the early hours of March 11, 2025, Abdul Rani Md Ariffin strangled and suffocated Abdul Rahman Mohamed Ariffin, 56, following an argument over the endless cleaning.
Rani also pitied his younger brother because of his illnesses and wanted to make the victim’s worries disappear, prosecutors told the High Court on June 30.
On June 30, Rani, who is now 59, was sentenced to eight years’ jail after he pleaded guilty to a reduced charge of culpable homicide not amounting to murder.
He was originally charged with murder.
The charge was reduced after a psychiatric assessment found that he was suffering from adjustment disorder with mixed disturbance of emotions and conduct that included depressed mood state and irritability.
The condition impaired his ability to appreciate the moral wrongfulness of his actions in ending the victim’s life, the psychiatric report stated.
It also said he was facing caregiver stress, and that there was evidence he had difficulties in emotional regulation and expression.
Rani shared the flat with his younger brother and two older sisters. Both men were unemployed.
Rani slept on the sofa in the living room and his two sisters slept in a bedroom, while the victim took another bedroom.
The victim had been diagnosed with diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol and chronic kidney disease. He had also been diagnosed with depression since 2008.
Rani took care of his three siblings. He took Rahman and their two sisters, Salbiah and Zarah, to their medical appointments, and bought household items and groceries.
On Jan 27, 2025, the victim went to Ng Teng Fong General Hospital due to swelling and bruising.
He was then transferred to National University Hospital (NUH), where he was warded until Feb 28, 2025. He was diagnosed with acquired haemophilia A.
After the victim’s discharge from NUH, he started cleaning the flat frequently by taking out household items, sorting through them, discarding unwanted things and rearranging or storing the remainder in drawers.
However, he usually did not complete one area before moving on to another, leaving multiple piles of unsorted belongings throughout the flat.
Frustrated, Rani would ask the victim why he was incessantly cleaning and tidying up, but the victim would tell his older brother not to be a busybody.
Between 3am and 4am on March 11, Rani was lying on the sofa in the living room when he heard Salbiah telling the victim that he still had not finished tidying up, and the victim scolded her in response.
After a few minutes, Rani went to the victim’s bedroom to reprimand him.
He asked the victim: “Why does the cleaning never end?”
The victim replied: “I clean as I wish to, lah.”
Angered, Rani stepped out of the bedroom and suddenly felt like strangling his brother.
He was angry because of the victim’s response to him, and because the victim scolded Salbiah.
He also pitied the victim because of his many illnesses and his poor memory, and he wanted to make the victim’s worries disappear.
After killing his brother, Rani left the bedroom around 7am.
Zarah woke up at about 10.30am, and he told her he had strangled Rahman.
Paramedics pronounced the victim dead at the scene, and Rani was arrested at about 12.25pm.
The court heard Rani has an established diagnosis of schizophrenia but was not in an active relapse at the time.
Describing the case as a profound tragedy, Deputy Public Prosecutors Ben Tan and Joel Fun sought eight to 10 years’ jail.
They acknowledged the psychiatric evidence but said Rani’s offence remained undeniably grave.
The victim, who was in a vulnerable state, was killed by his own brother, the very person who should have been providing him with care and support, said the prosecutors.
They added that Rani’s justifications for killing the victim should not diminish the gravity of such acts of violence against a defenceless family member.
Defence counsel Amarick Gill, who was assigned to defend Rani, sought eight years’ jail. He said: “This was a situation of friction between him and his brother; it was a situation of caretaker fatigue.”
He added that Rani would have to live for the rest of his life with the knowledge he took his brother’s life.
Source: The Straits Times © SPH Media Limited. Permission required for reproduction.
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