SCDF Ragging Incident: Warrant Officer Insisted That He’s Being ‘Framed’

On 13 May 2018,  SCDF NSF Kok Yuen Chin was found unconscious at the bottom of a 12m-deep fire station pump well at Tuas View Fire Station.

Celebration Turned Tragic

What supposed to be an ORD celebration for NSF Kok turned out to be a tragedy after he was pushed into the pump well, which was said to be part of SCDF Ragging Ritual.

5 Regulars Were Charged

Lest you’ve forgotten, 5 SCDF Officers were charged last year for the death of NSF Kok’s ragging incident.

The following are the charges being made:

• Staff Sergeant Adighazali Suhaimi, 32, for obstruction of justice
• Staff Sergeant Muhammad Nur Fatwa Mahmood, 33, for causing death by rash act and for assisting Adighazali in deleting a video of the incident from his phone.
• Lieutenant Chong Chee Boon Kenneth, 37, and First Senior Warrant Officer Nazhan Mohamed Nazi, 40, for encouraging rash act which resulted in serious injury.
• First Warrant Officer Mohamed Farid Mohd Saleh, 34, for encouraging a rash act causing death.

Fatwa has since pleaded guilty and was sentenced to jail for one year and four weeks on 23 October 2018.

“He Said She Said” Kind Of Situation

For sure, this is not involving a female and a male, but you get what I mean.

Fatwa has previously testified against Farid, saying that Farid had told him to push NSF Kok into the pump well.

However, Farid had denied to these accusations and said that he was “angry, confused and disappointed” with Fatwa for wanting to implicate him and that Fatwa should be responsible for his own mistakes.

“I Don’t Friend You” Kind of Situation

Insisting that he did not take part in the ragging, Farid said that he felt “betrayed” by Fatwa.

When the Deputy Public Prosecutor (DPP) claimed that there were no reasons for Fatwa to falsely accused him as they were good friends, Farid replied “Then Fatwa is not my friend.”.

Wow.

Police Statement Does Not Tally With Court Evidence

Towards the end of the cross-examination, DPP claimed that Farid was lying on the witness stand.

The prosecutor had stated that Farid’s police statement after the incident did not match up with his evidence in the court.

He had also questioned Farid’s move of asking Fatwa for cigarettes after the interview as Farid should have avoided Fatwa if Fatwa had lied.

Farid, in his defense, said that he was just “acting normal”  and that it was “an unstable time to tell everything correctly” then.

Justice Will Prevail

With all these finger-pointing going on, it is hard to say who’s right and who’s wrong.

Whatever it is, I do believe and hope that justice will prevail.

To everyone out there, there are tons of way to celebrate an occasion, DO NOT do anything that would endanger anyone’s life.

As people would say: A moment of folly, a lifetime of regret.