WHEN Mr David Hartanto Widjaja's family arrived in Singapore on the day he died, various people all told them he had stabbed his professor, cut his own wrists and jumped off a bridge to his death.

These were mostly representatives from the Nanyang Technological University, said Mr Widjaja's brother William at a coroner's inquiry into the death.

Mr William Widjaja, 24, said he was surprised everyone had already drawn conclusions about how the events had panned out even though police investigations had barely started.

A bloody Mr David Widjaja, 21, had been seen leaving the office of NTU professor Chan Kap Luk. Several witnesses who had testified earlier said they saw the student thrust himself off the bridge.

Mr William Widjaja said on the stand yesterday: 'NTU lied to us. They convinced us David cut his wrists and committed suicide. We never believed it.'

He added that his family said 'yes' when the university 'pressured' them to decide whether they wanted to cremate Mr Widjaja's body in Singapore or to fly the body back in a coffin. Had the family been aware of the injuries his brother had suffered, he said, they would have flown his body to Jakarta for another autopsy.

When he said he doubted how the autopsy here was conducted, State Coroner Victor Yeo intervened and requested that Mr William Widjaja stick to 'objective evidence'. On Wednesday, the Widjajas lashed out at NTU over a statement it released shortly after the incident, saying such a statement should not have been released before investigations were done.

The statement, released to the media about four hours after the incident, said Mr David Widjaja was 'believed to have stabbed Prof Chan and subsequently fallen off the linkway between two blocks'.

Mr William Widjaja also spoke of suspicions of a conspiracy theory and accused NTU of withholding information about his brother's death from the family.

He said NTU had 'intimidated' several students who knew his brother into not speaking about the incident to anyone.

Read the full story in Friday's edition of The Straits Times.