By IANS,
Kuala Lumpur : The ethnic Indian mother of a 10-year-old boy has accused the police of torturing her son, slapping and choking him and scalding his leg while questioning him for allegedly stealing his school teacher’s purse.
The incident occurred Aug 5 after N. Logeswaran was taken to a police station at Kampar near Ipoh in Perak state, even though the purse, money (containing RM 700 – roughly $200) and other documents were not found on the boy.
Parti Sosialis Malaysia (PSM) deputy chairman M. Sarasvathy, who took up his case, submitted a memorandum to the Perak police Tuesday alleging that the police, in order to get the boy to confess, slapped him on his face while two policemen tried to choke him.
“They even tried to melt some plastic on the boy’s private parts,” said Sarasvathy, outside the Perak police contingent headquarters, The Star newspaper said Wednesday.
Logeswaran’s mother P. Santhi said her son suffered head injuries as a result of the police beating.
“The police also took out a parang (dagger) and a pistol to threaten the boy,” Saraswathy said, adding that Logeswaran was also handcuffed and locked up in a dark room.
“He is now traumatised by the incident,” said Sarasvathy, adding that he suffered injuries on the back of his head, wrists and leg after the ordeal.
Logeswaran was picked up from his school at 12.30 p.m. last Wednesday and was only released at 10.45 p.m. the same day. His parents were not informed about the incident.
He was taken to the Kampar Hospital at 11 p.m. after complaining of headaches and after he started vomiting, said Sarasvathy.
He was transferred to Hospital Raja Permaisuri Bainun at midnight for observation and was discharged Monday.
Ethnic Indian lawmaker from Sungai Siput D. Jeyakumar said the police should have followed proper guidelines in handling cases involving a child.
Perak police chief Datuk Deputy Commissioner Zulkifli Abdullah, when contacted by the newspaper, said he had received the memorandum and that police were investigating the matter.