Police catch up with suspected child rapist on the run
KUCHING: A manhunt for a suspected child rapist, which began in Sri Aman a month ago, came to an end yesterday when police nabbed him at a housing estate in Bintulu.
State CID chief Datuk Dev Kumar said the arrest of the 23-year- old came after CID personnel in Bintulu were notified of the suspect’s location by their counterparts at state police headquarters here, who had spent the past month tracking the suspect as he moved from place to place to evade the law.
“Around 3.45pm today (yesterday), a police team led by Inspector Nixon Malang caught up with the suspect after spotting him riding a motorcycle at RPR Kidurong in Bintulu.
“The suspect, however, abandoned his motorcycle and fled on foot upon seeing the police, but was successfully apprehended after a chase,” he said in a statement to the press.
He added the suspect, who was believed to be high on drugs at the time of his arrest, will be handed over to police in Sri Aman for further investigation.
According to Dev Kumar, the alleged rape came to light on Aug 29 when a 53-year- old farmer from Kampung Abok Janang in Sri Aman reported to police that his 11-year- old daughter had been abducted.
The report was made after the family spent the previous two days trying to locate both the suspect and their daughter without any success.
“Initial investigation by police revealed that the girl’s mother had allowed her to follow the unemployed suspect, whom the family had known only two weeks earlier, on his motorcycle to buy food at Sungai Tenggang in Pantu around 4pm on Aug 27.
“Instead of bringing her back home, he brought the schoolgirl to Engkilili and forced her to stay with him for two nights at an unnumbered house where, according to the victim, the suspect raped her on the nights of Aug 27 and Aug 28.”
Dev Kumar further revealed that on the evening of Aug 29, the suspect took the victim to his friend’s house at San Raba, Sri Aman, where they slept separately, before he departed on his own the following day.
The friend later became suspicious about the girl’s continued presence at his house and subsequently informed the police around 6.30pm that same day.
The girl was then picked up by police and reunited with her parents prior to being sent to the Sarawak General Hospital here, where a medical examination conducted the following morning confirmed she had been raped.
Personnel from the state D8 and D9 units were then mobilised to track down the suspect who had, by then, seemingly disappeared and gone into hiding.
Checks conducted at several locations in various districts also failed to unearth the elusive suspect, who always seemed to be one step ahead of law enforcers.
“His luck finally ran out today ( yesterday) and I congratulate the state CID, D8 and D9 teams for this success as they have been working tirelessly to locate the suspect since the case was reported.
“I have given my commitment before this that perpetrators of crimes against women and children will be hunted down and brought to justice,” stressed Dev Kumar, who hoped that yesterday’s arrest could bring some amount of closure to the victim and her family.