SCDF Ragging Incident: Another NSF Was Supposed to Save CPL Kok Cuz He Couldn’t Swim

This morning, the people involved in CPL Kok’s death during a ragging incident in the SCDF last year were back in court, and more information about the unfortunate passing that never should have happened were revealed.

And it’s once again reinforced the fact that ragging should be banned, because those folks really sounded like good pals before the fateful incident.

Another NSF Who’s a Swimming Instructor Was Prepared to Save CPL Kok

In an emotional trial today, it turned out that another NSF, CPL Sok Leng, had been prepped to save CPL Kok lest something tragic happen.

Apparently, on that fateful day, the group, comprising six regular officers and two NSFs, had just wanted to “scare” CPL Kok. According to Staff Sergeant Chang, who was in court but not charged, he claimed that they had no intention to throw CPL Kok into the well.

“We were just going to carry him and place him outside the metal gates of the well,” he said.

But of course that didn’t happen.

Instead, when CPL Kok was forced to sit on the ledge of the well, someone had asked if he knew how to swim. CPL Kok said he did not.

Instead of ending everything, Staff Sergeant Fatwa, who was the one who pushed CPL Kok down the well, said that CPL Sok Leng was there and so there was nothing to worry about. CPL Sok Leng is a swimming instructor.

As a safety precaution, Staff Sergeant Chang had got CPL Sok Leng to surrender his handphone and wallet to prepare for the worst. He said in court, “To expect the unexpected, I asked him to pass me his belongings in case he needed to dive in and pull (Corporal Kok) out.”

And as we know, the unexpected did happen and it wasn’t Corporal Kok Leng who dove in: the group dove in but couldn’t find CPL Kok.

Staff Sergeant Fatwa Has Been Charged

Staff Sergeant Fatwa, the person who told CPL Kok not to worry and then pushed him down, has since been charged last October and sentenced to one year and four weeks’ jail.

Another officer, who took a footage of the incident but deleted it after that, has served his one month’s sentence for obstructing the course of justice.

Today’s trial is for two senior officers of the station: Lieutenant Chong Chee Boon Kenneth, who’s the commander of Rota 3, and First Senior Warrant Officer Nazhan Mohamed Nazi, the deputy commander of the team.

And if you’re forgotten, it was revealed in earlier reports that the commander had said to them through a window this: “No recording or video allowed.”