SINGAPORE: A 25-year-old Indian was on Tuesday jailed for 18 weeks for obstructing a police officer trying to disperse mob during Singapore's worst violence in 40 years, the 19th Indian imprisoned in connection with the incident.

Ravi Arun Vengatesh, then a quality control supervisor, admitted obstructing a police officer who was trying to control last year's riot in Little India — a precinct of Indian shops, businesses, pubs, eateries, hotels and motels.

He admitted to obstructing acting inspector Thinagaran S Krishnasamy near a lane at Chander Road on December 8 last year, The Straits Times reported.

Before him, 18 Indians have been jailed for various prison terms in connection with the violence.

Vengatesh and his brother-in-law Selvanathan Murugesan, 28, had been drinking earlier that evening and were heading to Little India MRT station when they were stopped by police, the court heard.

The riot, worst violence in Singapore in four decades, erupted after the death of an Indian national who was run over by a local bus amidst a gathering of some 400 migrant workers from South Asia.

In the ensuing violence on the night of December 8 in Little India, 58 police and defence officers were injured and 23 emergency vehicles damaged.