| Car accident victim cries foul over police abuse Posted: 18 Mar 2012 08:57 PM PDT  Source: http://www.malaysiakini.com/news/192422 (By Leven Woon, 18/3/2012)
The victim of a car accident is crying foul over the police letting off the offender, and rounding up his friends instead for criticising the latter's inaction. 30-year-old Cheah Kok Hong said he was driving home in the early hours of Friday morning when a drunk driver allegedly scraped the side of his car.
At a press conference today held by Segambut MP Lim Lip Eng, Cheah recounted the incident that took place near the Esso petrol station in Pandan Perdana on the MRR 2 highway, Kuala Lumpur. According to him, the offender was intoxicated and punched him as they negotiated a settlement over the accident. Cheah then flagged down a passing car for help, from a driver claiming to be a criminal investigation department (CID) official.
"The (self-proclaimed) CID officer took the offender to one side and talked. Then he came back to me and said he wants to let the guy to go," said Cheah, whose car was left severely scratched from the accident. "I protested strongly against the move. Then he suddenly wrung my neck and threatened to handcuff me if I didn't listen to him," he claimed further, adding that the CID official was in plain clothes. The offender, who drove a Perodua vehicle then left the scene.
Friends arrested for obstruction
Cheah recounted how two of his friends arrived shortly after, along with five police patrol cars. He said roughly 10 police officer on the scene spoke to the CID officer and then proceeded to let him go without getting further details from Cheah. Upset over the unfair treatment, his two friends got emotional and confronted the police, calling them "useless" and saying they "never help the victim and never uphold justice". "But we only shouted at them. We never touched them one bit, " Cheah said.
The police, he said, responded by rounding up the two friends for allegedly obstructing police duties and attacking the police, and remanded them for four days at the Ampang Jaya police headquarters.
Cheah has since lodged a police report over the arrests, and says the police have to date denied him a chance to see his friends. The investigating officer (IO) for the case, he added, has claimed the police's statements can be trusted because they had ten witnesses.
Police tight lipped
Commenting on the case at the press conference, Lim decried the police for yet another case of alleged foul play, for victimising the public instead of arresting the culprit. "Upon receiving the report, the IO should have immediately summoned the offender to see whether he was intoxicated. Now the offender would have covered up everything," said the Segambut MP.
"I urged the police to immediately replace the IO with a new one," said Lim. He also slammed the IO's claim that the number of their witness would determine justice. "If his theory is right, then I can call 10 friends of mine to be a witness, and I can go commit crime everywhere," he said.
Lim added that he has made two inquiries with the police through Twitter and a SMS to Selangor police chief Tun Hisan Tun Hamzah.
Tun Hisan, when contacted, refused to comment the issue on the record, stressing that investigations is going on. |
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