SINGAPORE — A Singapore Armed Forces (SAF) officer and five former full-time national servicemen (NSFs) from the Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) have been charged over the death of an NSF during a military exercise in November a year ago.

Corporal First Class Liu Kai, 22, was killed in a field training exercise on Nov 3 last year at Jalan Murai near Lim Chu Kang.

A Bionix armoured vehicle had reversed into and mounted a Land Rover that Liu was driving. The transport operator from the SAF’s Transport Hub West was pronounced dead by medical officers about 25 minutes later.

An independent committee of inquiry into the death found that the Bionix’s driver had continued reversing despite repeated orders from a specialist to stop.

The SAF officer, Captain Ong Lin Jie, 28, was charged on Friday (Oct 25) with causing Liu’s death by a rash act not amounting to culpable homicide.

According to court documents, he was the vehicle commander of the Land Rover. He allegedly failed to keep a safe distance of 30m between the two vehicles, causing the Bionix to reverse and mount the driver’s side of the Land Rover.

His lawyer CK Teo said that he does not intend to plead guilty to the charge, which carries a maximum jail term of five years, a fine or both. Ong will return to court on Nov 21.

The Ministry of Defence said in a statement that Ong has been suspended from service pending the outcome of the court proceedings.

The ministry is conducting its own internal investigation to determine if there have been breaches of military law by other individuals.

Separately, five others who were NSFs with SCDF at the time were handed charges of wrongful communication of official information under the Official Secrets Act. SCDF had filed police reports against them in the days following the fatal incident.

The police said in a statement on Friday that two of them were at the scene when they took photographs of the incident and forwarded them through WhatsApp. The photos later made their rounds on social media.

The two are:

• Muhammad Arif Azman, 22. He faces two charges of sending two photos to 23 others in a WhatsApp group chat at about 2pm that day, and failing to comply with one Captain Dinesh K Verlachamy’s directions to delete the photos from his mobile phone.

• Mohamad Haikal Mohamad Zainal Abiddin, 21. He faces three charges of sending five photos of the incident to 23 people in a WhatsApp group chat, and sending the same photos to two other individuals on WhatsApp.

The other three men received the photographs and shared them despite knowing that they were sensitive official information, the police added. They are:

• Brandon Tan Jien Jet, 21. He allegedly sent two photos to six others in a WhatsApp group chat. 

• Thng Yu Xuan, 21. He is accused of sending four photos to five others in a WhatsApp group chat.

• Muhammad Zaki Mokhtar, 24. He allegedly sent two photos to an individual in a WhatsApp chat.

Arif, Tan, Thng and Zaki told the court that they intend to plead guilty to their alleged offences, while Haikal — represented by lawyer Noor Marican — said that he is planning to contest the charges.

In a statement on Friday, SCDF said that it had filed a police report against the five men after conducting internal investigations to identify those responsible for leaking photos of the accident.

The NSFs were immediately re-deployed to non-frontline duties while police investigations were ongoing and all five have since completed their National Service, SCDF added.

"We have strict rules to safeguard official information, and view any breach seriously. Any officer who commits offences will be dealt with in accordance with the law," it said.