Defence witness may be impeached in commando trainers' trial

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SINGAPORE : A defence witness may be impeached in the trial of the four commando trainers charged with causing the death of 2nd Sergeant Hu En Huai and the near drowning of Captain Ho Wan Huo.

The evidence of commando instructor Staff Sergeant Ng Chong Chee is now in doubt after the judge allowed prosecutors to go ahead with the impeachment proceedings.

Rather than bolstering the case for the defence, Staff Sergeant Ng may have dent it instead.

The issue centres on Staff Sergeant Ng's own experience as a combat survival trainee in 1995.

During police investigations in November last year, he had told CID officers that the only water treatment he received was by instructors spraying him with a water hose. But in court he gave a different account.

Staff Sergeant Ng told the court that in his 1995 course, dunking was done in a water bay and trainees were occasionally sprayed with a water hose at a holding area.

When challenged by the prosecution on why the different accounts, he said, "I was not told to illustrate what was going on during my Combat Survival Training. What I said in court is more accurate.

"I was not concentrating on my 1995 CST. I was concentrating to assist the CID on the 80th CST. At the time, I thought the spraying was my water treatment. I was not able to think clearly and was actually quite confused why the CID asked me about my CST."

Staff Sergeant Ng had also testified that while leading Captain Ho away from the water tub, he had seen one of the accused commandos, Lieutenant Divanandhari walking towards them. - CNA

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Laughing

All pack of lies

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Another Case

SINGAPORE : A defence witness in the trial of the four commandos charged with causing the death of 2nd Sergeant Hu En Huai claims he has seen additional photographs other than the ones tendered in court as evidence.

Master Sergeant K Rajindran testified that when he was interviewed by CID officers, he saw more than 10 photographs taken on that ill-fated day.

Master Sergeant Raj identified three instructors in the photos he saw as Lieutenants Shashi Kumar, Ryan Toh and Staff Sergeant Tan Tian Huat.

He said these showed them conducting water treatment in the prisoner of war phase of the combat survival course on August 21 last year.

Master Sergeant Raj said one instructor arm-locked a trainee while another was seen sitting on top of a trainee.

The photos were taken by one of the accused commandos, 2nd Warrant Officer S Balakrishnan, who is charged with not stopping the dunking of trainees.

Earlier in the trial, the warrant officer had said he took the photos as a souvenir of the training exercise.

The master sergeant also testified he saw four instructors wearing gloves during the water treatment.

Three wore full gloves, including two of the accused commandos, Lieutenants Ng Chin Fong and Divanandhari, while Lieutenant Shashi Kumar, who has not been charged in this case, wore a pair of gloves with his fingers exposed.

An officer who barely survived the dunking treatment Captain Ho Wan Huo had testified earlier that he was dunked repeatedly by an instructor who wore gloves with the fingers exposed.

The captain was evacuated by helicopter from Pulau Tekong to the Singapore General Hospital, where he was warded for seven days. - CNA