Former Tuas View Fire Station rota commander Kenneth CHong Chee Boon, and his deputy Nazhan Mohamed Nazi, were handed longer jail sentences after trying to appeal over the death of a full-time NSF, Corporal Kok Yuen Chin, who drowned under their charge in a scandalous ragging case.
They were given 11 months and 10 months imprisonment respectively.
They were jailed under the charge of intentionally aiding their servicement to cause grievous hurt by doing a rash act which endangered human life.
They had failed to prevent the servicemen under their charge from making Corporal Kok enter a 12 metre deep pump well as part of a ragging ritual to celebrate his upcoming ORD.
The NSF later drowned in the well after spending more than half an hour in the water, and the rota’s men tried frantically but unsuccessfully to save him.
Corporal Kok died just 3 days shy of his ORD date.
Justice See Kee Oon said:
“The sentences I impose will be substantial to drive home the message that there is no place for ragging in NS.”
Justice See said that the evidence fully supports the inference that Corporal Kok was never a willing participant.
The victim’s father who attended most of the hearings, said:
“What else can I feel? (My son) is gone. He’s in another world … We have to pass the days, we have no choice.”
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