Two Pengerang residents from the Kota Tinggi district in Johor had complained and alleged that there had been abuse of power by the Royal Malaysian Police Force (PDRM) officers when they were carrying out the arrest of the residents concerned

Accompanied by Bakri MP Er Teck Hwa and Mengkibol ADUN Tan Hong Pin and Tangkak ADUN Ee Chin Lee together with Gabungan NGO Pengerang (Pengerang Unified NGO) representative, the resident brought the matter to the Enforcement Agency Integrity Commission (EAIC) in Putrajaya today.

In a press conference held after meeting the EAIC officers today, the victims explained that the event happened on 20 April 2014 when the complainant and her friend were arrested by a group of PDRM officers and were charged under Section 14, Minor Offences Act. Those apprehended were Liew Yen Hean and Seng Lee Tin.

According complainant Seng Lee Tin, the incident happened around 8 pm while she was at home. A few plainclothes PDRM officers had entered her house by kicking the house gate and arrested her and brought her back to the Sungai Rengit police station for investigation.

Subsequently around 9pm, Madam Liew Yen Hean went to the Sg Rengit police station because she was summoned by the police. However she was later instructed to report herself to the Kota Tinggi police headquarters at 10 pm. Three of Madam Liew Yen Hean’s friends accompanied her to the Kota Tinggi police headquarters at around 10pm.

She was interrogated until 3am and in the following morning both of them were brought to the Kota Tinggi magistrate court.

According to Madam Liew, during the interrogation the officer on duty didn’t provide any drinks for her even though she requested for it several times. In fact she was not allowed to wear warmer outer clothing during the interrogation despite informing the officer then that she was suffering from fever during that time.

According to Chua Peng Sian who was representing the Gabungan NGO Pengerang, the arrests were the result of the incident that happened during the grave exhuming and removal work on 18 April where Madam Liew and Seng Lee Tin had argued with one of the contractors involved in the grave removal works.

However the police have denied the charges and have instead accused that Madam Liew and Seng had argued and scolded the police officers. However the accused police officers were not identified as they were in plainclothes and had not showed their police identification card.

Following the argument both women were arrested on 20 April and charged under the Section 14, Minor Offences Act.

However Tan Hong Pin, Mengkibol ADUN had questioned the police officers’ rough handling of the women, commenting that it’s as though they had committed a serious crime.

“The charge under Section 14 is a minor offence, but why is the police acting in such harsh manner by kicking the house gate and arresting the women during the night?” Tan queried.

“During the five hours of interrogation, the police also did not provide any drinks for the women on the excuse that they had run out of portable water. In fact both Madam Liew and Seng were handcuffed when they were brought to the Kota Tinggi magistrate court even though they were only charged under the Minor Offence Act,” Tan added.

Bakri MP Er Teck Hwa repeats the plea for the EAIC to speed up the investigation into the complain.