Singapore - A Singapore court Thursday sentenced two Malaysian men to 10 years in jail for robbing a Bangladeshi worker and bashing him with a metal rod, thus causing his death six days later, a media report said.

Hirris Martin, 22 and James Anggang, 23, were also to get 24 strokes of the cane.

Both were initially accused of murder, which carries the mandatory death penalty, but the charges were reduced to robbery with grievous hurt.

A third man involved in the crime, only known as Ah Choi, is still at large, the online edition of Straits Times newspaper reported.

His two accomplices accused him of being the mastermind of the robbery.

Both men, who came from the Malaysian state of Sarawak to work as cleaners in Singapore, also said Ah Choi had wielded the metal rod and dealt the deadly blows to the victim.

After a night of heavy drinking, the three Malaysians went looking for someone to rob when they ran out of alcohol in January last year.

They set upon Bangladeshi worker Abu Saleh Taser Uddin Ahmed, 24, bashing him with a metal rod.

All they got from their victim was 50 Singapore dollars (34 US dollars), but the injuries they inflicted were so serious, that the victim died six days later, the report said. (dpa)