You might have read about the ambiguous “case of assault” in NTU this morning.
Heck, the rumours and speculations went beyond an assault: netizens were talking about a “shotgun” sound, a “fugitive” and a netizen in Reddit even claimed that he or she saw a blue tent.
With images of police cars and “army personnel”, it all seemed like Pulau NTU’s having a mini war.
It doesn’t help that the NTU Student Union also advised residents in NTU to stay indoors for their own safety.
It turns out to be a 19-year-old’s doings, and it’s not an assault.
But a fake report.
NTU’s Response
Three hours ago, NTU posted this in their Twitter account:
The University would like to assure all students that there is no cause for concern for their safety on campus. NTU is working with the police and an official statement will be issued later today.
— NTU Singapore (@NTUsg) December 15, 2019
In other words, NTU is still safe.
But…how about those police cars and “soldiers”?
Well, here’s what happened:
NTU would like to assure the NTU community there is no cause for concern about their safety on campus. We urge everyone to refrain from commenting or speculating on the case to avoid causing unnecessary alarm. Here is the University’s official statement on last night’s incident. pic.twitter.com/MbCYMaAoOQ
— NTU Singapore (@NTUsg) December 15, 2019
Apparently, a 19-year-old female NTU student had claimed to be assaulted, and so the police was involved.
As mentioned earlier, she wasn’t assaulted, though. Is she just bored or what?
Police’s Response
Finally, the police responded to the media at around 10am.
For a start, it’s not SAF soldiers that were deployed; it’s confirmed to be the Gurkhas, who were deployed to hunt for the “assaulter”.
Well, this goes to show how many local male students live there lah, for anyone who’s been through NS would be able to tell the difference between a SAF soldier and a Gurkha.
And secondly, the report was made at 6:24 p.m. yesterday (14 December 2019), and it’s fake; nothing happened.
Still, kudos to the officers who went all out to ensure that no stone is left unturned.
Here’s the police statement:
“On Dec 14, 2019 at 6.24pm, the police were alerted to a case of an alleged assault on a female NTU student along Nanyang Walk.
“Investigations subsequently revealed that the 19-year-old student had provided false information to the police and the alleged assault did not occur. The police are investigating her for providing false information”
But how did rumours of shotgun sounds, “rape” and even a blue tent near Hall 16 surface?
Well, it seems like the Internet indeed a scary place.
But this is the meat of the article: For people in NTU, you can now proceed to go out and dabao your breakfast liao.
