Abduction: Duo influenced by Hong Kong movie, say police
KOTA KINABALU:
Two men who abducted and assaulted a 22-year-old Universiti Malaysia Sabah student thinking they were in for a ‘cool’ experience, ended up in hot soup for committing the heinous crime. They were separately arrested by the Police in Keningau in just 48 hours after committing the crime. And initial investigations by the police revealed that the duo’s actions were influenced by a Hong Kong movie in which a group of people had gone out drinking and committed crime afterwards while under the influence of alcohol. Deputy State Police Commissioner Datuk Ab Razak Ab Ghani, who represented State police Commissioner Datuk Noor Rash Mansor for the State Security Work committee meeting here yesterday, said as based on a confession made by the suspect, a 20-year-old Bajau from Kampung Wirasan, Kota Belud, who was detained round noon on Wednesday. He has since remanded. “He had admitted to us that their actions were influenced by a Hong Kong movie. “The student was a random victim but we believe it was a well planned incident. She was walking with a group of friends to church and was just a few steps behind from the rest of the people when they forced her into their car at around 7pm on Tuesday,” he said. It was learnt that the victim and her friends were on their way to a church in Kingfisher to pray as the exams were approaching. While passing through an isolated area, the victim, a second year student, who was at the end of the group, became an easy target to the abductors. “They forced her into the car, a Perodua Kancil, and drove off. It happened in just within a few minutes,” he told reporters after the meeting. Investigations also revealed that the abductors were driving a stolen vehicle that uses a fake plate number. The number belongs to a motorcycle. The second suspect, a 29-year-old local Bruneian, was nabbed along the Keningau-Tambunan Road in his bid to escape by boarding a bus to the State Capital yesterday at around l0am. Ab Razak said that although the case is considered solved with the arrest of both suspects, investigations are continuing, adding that: “We are looking at every possible angle, including whether she was sexually assaulted.” He however stressed that there were obvious signs of beatings on the victim. “There was actually a two-hour delay of relating the incident to the police, we only got to know around 9. l5pm on Tuesday. However we also thanked the public for their cooperation of not protecting the suspects,” he said. In addition, he advised the public to avoid drinking excessively and not to be easily influenced by what is shown in the movies. “When one is under the influence of alcohol, one will be off balance on the good and evil. “The incident itself is a lesson learned. We hope the public would make use of the RakanCop Service or contact the Police Hotline numbers. We will beef up patrols, not just in Kingfisher but other areas with a high density to curb and prevent such crime from happening in the future,” he said. RakanCop is a service provided to enable the public to send information on any kind of crime via short messaging service, and send it to 32728.
