On 13 May this year, Corporal Kok Yuen Chin, an NSF from the SCDF, was about to ORD in three days’ time. It was his last duty tour for his two-year national service, and his 24-hour shift started at 8:00 a.m. that day.
He was less than twelve hours from freedom when he fell into a well, and never came back up.
At 11:03 p.m. that day, he was pronounced dead and Singaporeans grieved, for we have lost a Singapore son once again.
However, in every crisis comes a change, and this time it was end of an activity known as “ragging”, a celebratory activity for ORD personnel that might have the best intentions, but the ends finally don’t justify the means.
Yesterday, more was revealed on what happened, and it wasn’t something anyone would have expected.
What Exactly Happened
According to a hearing yesterday (23 October 2018), it all started on 8:30 p.m. that fateful night. A group was celebrating CPL Kok’s ORD with a plaque and a cake.
Staff Sergeant (SSG) Muhammad Nur Fatwa Mahmood had suggested CPL Kok to partake in “kolam”, the ragging ritual of entering the pump well.
CPL Kok had repeatedly refused, but three officers, one of them SSG Fatwa, carried him to the well. Their commander merely told them not to film the process.
When CPL Kok was told to sit on the edge of the well, he froze there for about 43 seconds. Then SGG Fatwa pushed CPL Kok down the well.
Eight seconds after that, a few of the officers jumped in to locate CPL Kok but could not find him. They then tried to pump the water out while some continued to dive deeper into the well to look for him.
It was only about half an hour later that sufficient water was pumped out and CPL Kok was found.
But that wasn’t the worst.
Someone Did Film the Process
Remember how their commander had told them not to film the process?
Apparently, one of the officers had filmed part of the incident, including the period when SSG Fatwa pushed CPL Kok down.
When they were waiting for the police to arrive, which is about two hours after CPL Kok was found, the officer told SSG Fatwa about the video.
SSG Fatwa repeatedly told the officer to delete the video, which he did.
However, forensic investigators from the Criminal Investigation Department managed to recover the video.
In any case, there’s a CCTV there that captured everything, so deleting the voice won’t have helped.
Reason for Deleting the Video
SSG Fatwa’s lawyer said that SSG Fatwa had wanted the video to be deleted as he “did not want the video to be spread”, and that he was aware of the CCTV so he wasn’t exactly trying to “siam”.
The lawyer added, “He came from a point of good intention. He’s not evil; he will face punishment for that…This is a good guy who made a momentary mistake. He agreed he should have known better — a life was senselessly lost. No one wanted this to happen.”
Pleaded Guilty; Jail for 12 Months 4 Weeks
SSG Fatwa has pleaded guilty to two charges: the first for causing death by committing a rash act not amounting to culpable homicide (for CPL Kok’s passing) and the second for abetting the obstruction of justice (for requesting to delete the video).
He will start his jail sentence today (24 October 2018).
The other four officers who have been prosecuted would be returning to the court on 12 November 2018.
Watch this for a complete summary of what REALLY happened to Qoo10, and why it's like a K-drama:
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