In a sad revelation in court yesterday, the death of a young Singapore Armed Forces (SAF) regular servicemen in Sembawang Camp was officially ruled a suicide, Channel NewsAsia reports.
The autopsy concluded that 20-year-old Pravinraj Selvaraj shot himself with his issued rifle. Based on the trajectory of the bullet, he placed the weapon in his mouth before pulling the trigger.
It was on the morning of Nov 21, 2015, that Pravinraj and his partner were issued rifles along with a loaded magazine, and an empty one during a guard duty stint at Sembawang Camp.
That afternoon, around 2.30pm, Pravinraj went to the toilet, while his partner waited outside. Calling out to Pravinraj after 10 minutes, the regular told his partner that he needed more time.
It was a few minutes after the interaction that a loud explosion was heard in the toilet. The partner saw bloodstains on the ceiling and alerted his superiors. Police and Singapore Civil Defence Force rescuers arrived to force open the cubicle, where Pravinraj was found slumped on the floor with his rifle.
On his phone, he had written a suicide note, in which he left his belongings to his best friend, thanked his friends for being there for him, and told his girlfriend he loved her. Further investigations revealed that he had browsed suicide-related websites on his phone and sent pictures of bullets to his girlfriend and four of his closest friends just hours before he killed himself.
No evidence of “bullying, mistreatment or work-related grievance” was found during Pravinraj’s time with the SAF, says State Coroner Marvin Bay.
Prior to signing on to SAF, however, Pravinraj had already been warded in the Institute of Mental Health (IMH) in 2011 for attempted suicide. He had been diagnosed with depression and acute stress reaction, and he cited the extremely strained relationship with his family as the reason behind his visits to IMH.
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