Beaten and robbed by cops over expired road tax

Kuching
Monday, 27th December 2010

The government MUST put to the Police Brutality. The are supposed to PROTECT and not to HARM the People.

For being frank with the police, 34-year-old Chia Buang Hing was detained for five days and beaten up until he vomited blood.

The businessman, who is frame-maker, narrated the "horrific" incident today, saying that the police bashed him up, threatened and robbed him of RM13,000 in cash he was carrying - all for the expired road tax of his wife's car that he was driving.

Chia's (left) nightmare began about 11pm on Dec 18, as he was driving from his house in Tropicana to Kota Damansara, where traffic police had set up roadblocks.

Having spotted the expired road tax, one of the police officers asked for his driver's licence and identification card.

It was then, he said, that the officer spotted stacks of RM50 notes, totalling RM7,000, sticking out of his pocket and demanded that he hand them over.

Chia said he refused and insisted he be issued with a summons but as the officer kept asking for the money, Chia warned that he would lodge a report. Then the assaults began.

"I tried to take his picture with my mobile phone, but I was repeatedly punched by him and two other officers.

"One of them then handcuffed me and I screamed for help (but) I was shoved inside a police car and beaten again," he said, adding that there were several witnesses to this, including a security guard and a friend of his who was in another car.

Chia said he was carrying a total of RM18,000 that he had collected from his three frame-making shops that night, with RM10,000 in his pockets and RM8,000 in the car.

'My money was thrown into the toilet'

The father of two said he was then taken to the police station in Kota Damansara and again assaulted.

"I was outside a toilet at the station and seven officers kicked and stepped on me until I vomited blood and sustained injuries on my face.

"Then, one police officer took the RM7,000 from my front pocket and RM3,000 from my back pocket and they threw it on the floor."

"He (the officer) became angry when I demanded the money be returned and he threw the remainder he was holding into the toilet and hit me again."

Chia said the police then ordered him to write a report that his sustained the injuries in a traffic accident and when he refused, they threatened to plant a blood-stained machete and drugs in his car and get him locked up for a long time.

At about 3am the following morning, he said, he was threatened by an officer that drugs would be injected into his bloodstream. He was later assaulted again, by as many as five officers, at the police station and at another place he could not identify.

One thing he managed to do, Chia said, was to leave his bloodied fingerprints in many parts of the police station that he had been dragged to.

"Only when they saw that I was barely surviving - as I had vomited blood and white foams were trickling out of my mouth - they took me to the hospital. By the time we got there, it was already 7 in the morning.

Magistrate ignored his complaints

Chia was taken to the Sungai Buloh Hospital and after that to the Petaling Jaya magistrate's court, about 10am, for a remand order against him.

He said he informed the magistrate of his ordeal but he was ignored. The magistrate ordered Chia to be remanded by police until Dec 22 on suspicion of possession of drugs and weapons.

During that period, he said, he was taken to a officer at narcotics department in the Petaling Jaya district police headquarters.

"He told me there was no case against me and called up the men who had abused me. He advised me to lodge a report and allowed me to contact my family," Chia added.

He said that he was then released on police bail and RM5,000 was returned to him.

Segambut DAP MP Lim Lip Eng (left) assisted Chia in lodging his report at the Mutiara Damansara police station yesterday.

Lim said the investigating officer accompanied them to the Kota Damansara police station where most of the Chia's bloodstains been removed, but there were some under a table, behind a mirror and under a cupboard, which were photographed by police.

'Nobody is above the law'

It was later informed that the Selangor police contingent headquarters has officially taken ver the matter.

A task force has been set up to investigate the complaint in detail. There will be no cover-up in the investigation, police said in a text message.

"Nobody is above the law. If there is evidence, the persons responsible will be charged in court," added the contingent's officer in-charge of criminal investigations, Mohd Adnan Abdullah.