SIBU: The police here are opening their files on two youths whom they believe to be members of an illegal cock fighting ring in Teku area.
TO THE RESCUE: Policemen inspect bruises on the back of the 18-year-old boy.
Sibu acting police chief Supt Zamani Hamdan said the police detained them at nightfall yesterday when the youths assaulted a father and his two sons in a crime related to cock-fighting.
He said the youths suspected that the man’s 19-year-old son had stolen their fighting cocks and so they dragged him out of his house in Tiong Hua Road to their car and took him to a secluded spot at Kampung Bahagia Jaya.
He said the father and his 18-year-old son, fearing for the safety of the abducted boy, gave chase on their motorcycle.
“But father and sons got badly beaten up when the two groups met in Kampung Bahagia Jaya.
“The 47-year-old father sustained head, face and right finger injuries while his 18-year-old son sustained left arm fracture and bruised left eye, back, legs and arms. The two are hospitalised.”
The abducted boy luckily only had bruised eyes and was treated as an outpatient.
Zamani said the police believed the two had beaten up the father and sons with an iron bar and a piece of wood while they also rained blows and kicks on them.
“We arrested all the five of them. We are investigating the youths under Section 148 of the Penal Code for rioting and Section 326 of the code for causing grievous hurt to the father and sons.”
As for the father and sons, he said the police were investigating them on allegation of theft of fighting cocks.
The police said the iron bar and stick were actually brought by the father and his younger son when they tried to rescue the abducted boy.
In the hot pursuit, the motorcycle of the father was pushed out of the road by the youth’s car at Kampung Bahagia Jaya.
Zamani said the father and his younger boy ended up in a drain with their machine.
He believed a struggle ensued and the weapons brought by the father and son ended up in the hands of their attackers.
The father and son were then beaten while the abducted boy managed to escape.
The police were alerted by the residents and eight policemen in four patrol cars arrived within minutes.
He said an ambulance was called in to take the father and sons to hospital.
Zamani said the attackers are known to the police and we have been watching them.
“As we open our files on them, we ask the public members to help us. Without evidence, nothing can be done.”