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SCDF ragging death: Officers argued over push

This article is more than 12 months old

Video footage shows two officers arguing over who gave the instruction to push NSF into well where he drowned

Video footage of an exchange between two Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) officers taken on the night Corporal Kok Yuen Chin drowned in a fire station pump well showed the officers arguing over whether one had told the other to push the full-time national serviceman into the well.

The video clip shown in court yesterday was taken from a police officer's body-worn camera when the police questioned the duo.

In it, Muhammad Nur Fatwa Mahmood, a staff sergeant, and Mohamed Farid Mohd Saleh, a first warrant officer, are seen disagreeing on whether the latter had given the instruction for the push.

On the night of May 13 last year, a group of SCDF servicemen was celebrating Cpl Kok's impending operationally ready date at Tuas View Fire Station.

Following a cake-cutting ceremony for Cpl Kok, 22, some officers carried him to the 12m- deep fire station pump well, where he drowned after Nur Fatwa pushed him in.

Last October, Nur Fatwa was sentenced to one year and four weeks in jail for pushing Cpl Kok and telling another officer to delete footage of the incident.

Nur Fatwa, 34, who completed his sentence earlier this month, took the stand yesterday during the trial of Farid, the officer who has been accused of instigating the push.

Farid, 35, is contesting the charge of abetting a rash act causing death.

In the footage, a police officer asks Farid if he is the one who gave the instruction to push Cpl Kok into the pump well.

"I didn't literally, like, ask him to... I just say 'so slow ah?', that's it," said an individual identified as Farid in the recording.

Another man identified as Nur Fatwa can be heard saying in Malay, "you said to push him in la, Rid," using Farid's nickname "Rid" to address him. Farid replies in Malay he had asked Cpl Kok to "sit there".

Later Nur Fatwa says in Malay: "Just now you already said, push him in, correct or not, don't play me out, Farid."

Addressing the exchange in the video, Nur Fatwa, whom fellow officers call "Wa", said he had felt betrayed that Farid did not want to admit that he had given the instruction.

Recounting the events in the immediate aftermath of the May 13 incident, Nur Fatwa said he had told the group of officers involved that they should be responsible for what they did together. However, he said everyone responded with silence.

Earlier in the day, another witness, Staff Sergeant Al-Khudaifi Chang, 26, had also said Nur Fatwa had gone around asking other officers if they had heard Farid giving him the instruction to push Cpl Kok into the well, but none of them did.

When asked why he had done so, Nur Fatwa said: "In a way I wanted to get assurance from other people on whether they heard Farid say this."

The trial continues today.

COURT & CRIME