SINGAPORE, Sept 4 — At least one of the five Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) officers allegedly involved in the death of full-time national serviceman Kok Yuen Chin intends to claim trial to dispute his charges.

Nazhan Mohamed Nazi, 40, faces one charge of abetting intentionally by aiding a group of servicemen to cause grievous hurt.

He is the deputy commander of Rota 3 — a team that included the men involved in the case — at Tuas View Fire Station.

Nazhan and three other officers — Mohamed Farid Mohd Saleh, Kenneth Chong Chee Boon and Adighazali Suhaimi — appeared in court yesterday.

Adighazali, Farid and Chong did not indicate whether they intend to plead guilty or claim trial.

They and Nazhan will return to court on October 1.

Nazhan, whose lawyer is Singa Retnam, faces up to four years’ jail and/or a fine of up to S$10,000 (RM30107.97) if convicted.

In a ragging incident-turned-tragedy on May 13, Corporal Kok, 22, was found unconscious at the bottom of a 12m-deep pump well — a reservoir of water used by fire station personnel for training and for testing the pumps of fire engines — at Tuas View Fire Station. The well was filled with water up to the 11m mark.

Corporal Kok was pronounced dead at Ng Teng Fong General Hospital in what was the first death resulting from ragging in the service.

Five officers were charged in July for their alleged roles in his death. The ragging incident allegedly took place between 9pm and 9.07pm.

The fifth officer, Muhammad Nur Fatwa, 33, intends to plead guilty to two charges. He is accused of pushing Corporal Kok into the pump well, as well as instigating Adighazali, 32, to delete a video recording of Corporal Kok being pushed into the well.

(From left) SCDF officers Mohamed Farid Mohd Saleh, Kenneth Chong Chee Boon and Adighazali Suhaimi appeared in court on Monday. — Najeer Yusof/TODAY pic

He will return to court on Sept 25 and is now out on a S$20,000 bail.

Adighazali was charged with obstructing the course of justice by deleting the video at about 11.23pm that day.

Farid, 34, was charged with abetting Fatwa by instigating him to push Corporal Kok into the well.

Chong, who is the Rota 3 commander at Tuas View Fire Station, faces a similar charge to Nazhan.

Aside from the five who have been charged, the police have referred eight other officers who were present during the incident to the SCDF for departmental investigations.

Six of those under departmental investigations are regular officers, while two are full-time national servicemen. Their names have not been released by the SCDF.

In May, the Ministry of Home Affairs said that there had been at least five reported incidents of ragging in the SCDF in the past eight years, with errant officers sent to the detention barracks for a period ranging from three to 40 days. — TODAY