SINGAPORE - Two 17-year-old boys appeared in a district court on Thursday (April 9) after one of them was allegedly caught on video sampling drinks at an NTUC FairPrice supermarket before placing them back on a shelf.

The video was uploaded onto Instagram and it later went viral.

It had also caused public alarm in the midst of the current coronavirus outbreak.

Nigel Pang Yew Ming and Quek Xuan Zhi were each charged with one count of being a public nuisance.

The two Singaporean teenagers allegedly committed the offence at the FairPrice outlet in Bukit Batok West Avenue 7 at around 7.45pm on Feb 6.

Court documents did not state which one of them sampled the drinks.

The identity of the person recording the video was also not disclosed.

In a statement on Wednesday, police said that they were alerted to the incident on Feb 8.

In the video, a boy is seen drinking from a bottle in the supermarket before putting it back on a shelf.

He takes a second bottle and puts it back after sampling its contents.

A version of the video circulating online had the title "how to spread Wuhan", referring to the Chinese city that was the epicentre of the Covid-19 outbreak at the time.

Later that month, FairPrice said it would be working with the authorities "on the necessary actions that need to be taken for (the) case".

On Thursday, defence lawyer Tan Hee Joek, who represents Quek, urged District Judge Adam Nakhoda to impose a gag order on his client’s identity, citing the teenager’s age.

He added: “The law has been amended recently to protect offenders below 18. The law has not come into force yet but I think given the high media attention, I’m inviting your honour to consider whether to protect his identity in the meantime, since he is just 17.”

Deputy Public Prosecutor Timotheus Koh objected to the suggestion and stressed that there was “no legal basis” for the application.

Judge Nakhoda then declined to impose a gag order.

Pang is unrepresented. Both teens were each offered bail of $3,000. They will be back in court on May 8.

Offenders convicted of being a public nuisance can be jailed for up to three months and fined up to $2,000.