A 46-year-old Indian-origin security officer has been charged with giving false information to a public servant about the safe disposal of a fake IED used in a simulation exercise which later caused a panic situation in the area, according to a media report.

Durendran Vicknesh Venkatraman was on January 5 tasked to dispose of an Improvised Explosive Device (IED) which was used in a simulation exercise conducted by a security agency that day at Singapore's Sing Industrial Complex in Ang Mo Kio Industrial Park, The Straits Times newspaper reported.

However, he failed to do so and the IED was later found abandoned in a public place causing panic among the people and authorities.

Due to the situation, the authorities were forced to deploy police resources and also bar at least 100 people from entering the premises before the item was established to be a fake IED, the report said.

"He was supposed to dispose of the fake IED after he received a call from the exercise team," a senior police official was quoted as saying in the report Also, when the authorities tried to connect to Venkatraman over the matter since he was absent for over 5 hours, he on his return lied to them that he had disposed of it.

Venkatraman’s case has been adjourned to April 30. If convicted of giving false information to a public servant, he can be jailed for up to six months and fined up to 5,000 Singaporean dollars.

For falsifying accounts, an offender can be jailed for up to 10 years and fined.

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