I have to admit, I feel so powerless in this one.
Factory worker 19 year old M Vijaya Varman was rudely awakened in his home in Kuala Selangor by seven policemen at 2am, the morning of Jan 4. Despite the lack of a warrant, he was arrested in connection with the theft of electrical cables.
The cops handcuffed him, dragged him into the van, drove around and simply put, proceeded to beat the shit out of him over a period of four hours.
Excerpts from his police report:
Tangan saya telah digari dibelakang ibubapa saya telah bertanya kepada mereka sebab saya di tahan tetapi mereka enggan menjawab soalan tersebut. Kemudiannya saya terus dibawa menaiki sebuah van berwarna putih semasa didalam perjalanan keluar daripada kawasan perumahan taman seri Kuantan, saya telah dipukul oleh CID-CID tersebut.
Van tersebut telah berhenti berhampiran dengan sebuah pub/karaoke di pasir panjang. Kemudian mereka terus membelasah saya dan menyoal saya di mana kawan-kawan saya yang lain yang telah dituduh mencuri kabel. Mereka terus mendesak sambil memukul saya supaya mengakui perbuatan tersebut. Selepas itu saya dibawa ke lokasi lain dan mereka terus memukul saya.
>:( >:(
Besides the original article and a video report, Malaysiakini also interviewed the Kuala Selangor police involved:
Confirming the arrest, OCPD Ibrahim Chin said: “There was no force involved. After the investigations, we released him. We used our discretion and we were reasonable.”
He also said the complaint had been investigated by calling in the officers involved in the arrest.
“This is the first time that such a complaint has been lodged against them. I feel that it was not right to lodge such a report. The complainant should have come to (Kuala Selangor) where we could confirmed his injuries through a medical check up.”
Asked to respond to fears of possible repercussions for accusing the police of brutality, he said there is no reason why the complainant should be afraid as “we don’t do this”.
Sound convincing to you? Is M. Vijaya just going to great lengths to make this up out of thin air?
And where is our IPCMC? Languishing in the AG’s Chambers – who at this point must be either deemed stupid, incompetent or both, for not having the draft out yet (or do they have the guts to defend their honour and come out with alternative explanations: directives from the government to let the damned legislation just rot away in obscurity perhaps?)
*
If I feel powerless, how does M. Vijaya feel? :(
All we have left is our votes. I intend to use them. Do you?
[...] I’m glad the charge has been levelled; the victims were an engineer and a project manager. I’m just hoping that’s not the only reason this case made it to the courts whereas those of M Vijaya and K Suresh remain unresolved :( [...]