BEAUFORT: The police here have brushed aside the claim by three brothers that they were not allowed to make a police report while in police custody pertaining to an assault incident that occurred at the Ko Nelayan jetty in Kuala Penyu last year.
District police chief DSP Mustaffa Maarof Mustaffa said the three brothers, Chia Ina Hua, 39, Chia Ing Teck, 37, and Chia Teck Guan, 34, did not make any application to lodge the police report.
“We confirmed that there was no application made by them to make a police report,” Mustaffa said.
He also confirmed that the siblings also did not make any application to make a telephone call while they were in the police custody.
As to the food issue raised by them, he said food in the lock-up was subject to the lock-up regulations and the complainants were given food based on the detainees’ scale.
Mustaffa also confirmed that they had received a report lodged by a police personnel dated August 15, 2010, the day the incident took place, and had opened an investigation under Section 147 of the Penal Code for rioting in public place.
However, he said that from the police investigation, no person had been charged in court over the incident as the investigation papers were still at the office of the Attorney-General’s Chambers in Kuala Lumpur.
He said this in a press statement in rebutting the complaint lodged by Ina Hua and his two siblings last Friday at the Sabah Progressive Party (SAPP) office in Kota Kinabalu.
In the complaint which was published in the Borneo Post the next day, Ina Hua said a member of a fishing operator approached and punched him at the said jetty.
He claimed that more members from both sides joined in the fight.
Ina Hua said his two brothers and him were apprehended by the police, along with two members from the competing fishing operator.
They claimed that while they were in the police custody, the police personnel in charge did not allow them to make a police report and they were detained for one night.
“We were denied our basic rights to a phone call, and not even allowed to have food packed for us. We had our photographs and fingerprints taken,” Ina Hua alleged.
On August 23, this year, Ina Hua said that he was shocked when they were informed that all of them had been charged under Section 160 of the Penal Code for committing affray.