DAP accuses police of beating up youth, produces video evidence

The DAP today accused the police of yet another case of power abuse, claiming policemen beat up a 17-year-old boy in Perak after arresting him on suspicion that he was a drug addict.

Taiping MP Nga Kor Ming even produced a video, believed to have been recorded on someone’s mobile phone, as evidence of the purported case of police brutality.

The five and a half minute video shows a group of about 10 men, with one of them holding on to what looks like a wooden stick or a steel pipe, handcuffing the SM Tengku Menteri student to the exhaust pipe of a motorcycle and subsequently beating him up.

The men, one of whom was garbed in a collared t-shirt bearing the Royal Malaysian Police insignia, were also seen stepping on the boy’s head and kicking him numerous times, rendering him unconscious. The youth was also stripped down to his underwear and dragged around.

Nga called on the Bukit Aman police headquarters to conduct an open and impartial investigation into the matter to determine if police personnel were indeed involved.

“It is very suspicious... how did the men get the police uniform with the RMP logo and how did they come into possession of the handcuffs?

“A thorough police investigation must be conducted to clear the name of the police and return justice to the boy and his family,” he told reporters in Ipoh.

He said that the case was brought to his attention this morning when the parents of the boy came to his office in Taiping to lodge a complaint.

“They were very angry with what happened and it is clearly a case of abuse of police power if it is true that the police were involved.

“It is fortunate that this video was actually recorded. I believe it was recorded by the friend of the youth,” said Nga.

He noted that the incident had occurred on April 15 when the youth was allegedly arrested in Changkat Jering by the group of men, who suspected that he was a drug addict.

“This is an especially disturbing case, especially since it comes in the wake of the fatal shooting of Aminulrasyid Amzah,” said Nga.

The 14-year-old schoolboy was shot dead earlier this week when he allegedly tried to reverse his car into a police roadblock in Section 11, Shah Alam.

When contacted, Taiping district police chief Asst Comm Yusof Mohd Diah denied any police involvement in the case and slammed Nga for his accusation.

He claimed that the group of men were not police personnel but merely a group of vigilantes from the surrounding villages who had taken the law into their own hands.

“We have already arrested two of them and they are being investigated under Section 147 of the Penal Code for rioting. We are looking for at least five more,” he said.

He expressed discontentment that Nga had failed to check his facts with the police before making his accusations public.

“It is clear he has a bad intention to destroy the image of the police force. This is very unfair to us,” he said.

He however admitted that the boy had been tested positive for drugs and had been sent to a rehabilitation centre in Sungai Petani.

According to a local in the area, the group of vigilantes were formed for the purpose of punishing the drug addicts who have been allegedly terrorising the villages by engaging in petty crime.

“When police reports are lodged, the police do nothing. This is why the villagers are fed up and have decided to take the law into their own hands,” he said.