Thesun 2009-01-07 Page10 We Were Manhandled Claim Usm Students

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theSun

news without borders Police quiz 22 in probe into scalding case by Charles Ramendran [email protected]

KUALA LUMPUR: Police gave an assurance yesterday that stern action will be taken against their personnel should the claims of police brutality made by a 27year-old carpark attendant on Dec 30 turn out to be true. The attendant, Prabakar Balakrishna, was arrested weeks earlier by Brickfields police for suspected gangland activities and extortion in the Sri Hartamas nightspot areas. He had alleged that during his detention he was badly wounded after being beaten up and splashed with boiling water by interrogators. Federal CID chief DCP Datuk Mortadza Nazarene said in a statement last night that following the report lodged by Prabakar, Inspector-General

of Police Tan Sri Musa Hassan had ordered a task force to be formed to probe the allegations thoroughly. He said to date the task force has recorded statements from Prabakar and 22 other witnesses, including police personnel who arrested the complainant and also the doctor who examined and treated him for his injuries. He said the outcome of the probe is almost completed and police expect to submit the findings to the Attorney-General’s Chambers for the next course of action soon. Mortadza said police will not tolerate or protect any of its personnel for such unacceptable actions and will ensure they face court action if they are found to have a hand in the incident. The case is being investigated for causing hurt under the Penal Code.

We were manhandled, claim USM students Yap (left), Adisyahid (right) and other ProMahasiswa USM supporters with the memorandum which they submitted to USM vicechancellor Dzulkifli.

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GEORGE TOWN: Police arrested a widower and seized drugs worth RM1 million from his house on Sunday. The 30-year-old man was arrested in George Town at about 2.45pm after two weeks of police surveillance. Following this, police raided his house in Relau, where they seized 3kg of

syabu and 1.5kg of Ecstasy powder. They also seized tools believed to have been used to process the drugs. Chief Police Officer Datuk Wira Ayub Yaakob said yesterday the case is being investigated under Section 39(b) of the Dangerous Drug Act 1952. Ayub also said the state narcotics team seized RM8.7 million worth of drugs last year.

I/THESUN MASRY CHE AN

Widower held, drugs seized by Bernard Cheah

| WEDNESDAY JANUARY 7 2009

by Opalyn Mok [email protected]

GEORGE TOWN: Three Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) students who alleged that they were manhandled by the university’s security personnel lodged police reports on the incident late yesterday afternoon. One of the students, Yap Heng Leng, 22, claimed that the security personnel had

behaved unprofessionally by forcefully pushing him and the other two students into a security van. “They detained us at the security department for about two hours last night (Monday) for distributing flyers in the campus without the university’s approval,” he said. Yap said the security personnel did not need to act so violently against them because they were merely handing out flyers. Yap and the other two students, Ch’ng Hui Ying, 20, and Hiew Kai Sheng, 21, were distributing flyers to invite students to attend the handing over of a memorandum from Pro-Mahasiswa USM to the university’s vice-chancellor, Tan Sri Prof Dzulkifli Abdul Razak, yesterday. Dzulkifli said the university will

conduct a thorough investigation into the matter. “We will find out the truth behind this matter and we will resolve this issue internally,” he said. Once the investigation is completed, appropriate action will be taken. Pro-Mahasiswa USM president Adisyahid Mohd Ali, 25, handed over the memorandum to Dzulkifli yesterday afternoon. In the memorandum, Pro-Mahasiswa USM called for the Universities and University Colleges Act 1971 to be abolished. It also wanted the Campus Elections Committee to be independent and fair for there to be a check-and-balance in the campus elections, and the formation of an independent monitoring committee from outside the university. Pro-Mahasiswa USM also wanted the campus elections date to be announced 15 days before the nomination forms were issued, the campaign period to last five working days, and an assurance that the voters and candidates would not be threatened throughout the campaign period.