KUALA LUMPUR – Police have confirmed the identity of a man said to have jumped to his death from a condominium in Cheras recently as the husband of a woman assaulted and manhandled by a policeman in a viral video.
This comes amid an allegation by an online whistle-blower that the deceased was murdered by the same officer who allegedly beat his wife, out of frustration that the man had lodged a police report against him.
Bukit Aman’s Criminal Investigation Department (CID) director Datuk Seri Abdul Jalil Hassan denied that the man was murdered.
Confirming that the man had lodged a police report, Jalil said that it had nothing to do with the alleged assault against the wife, but was on a domestic issue the man had.
“Yes, the deceased was the woman’s husband,” he said in a brief WhatsApp message to The Vibes today.
“Police did receive a report from the deceased, but in relation to his domestic crisis with his wife.”
Jalil was asked to verify if the individual found dead at the ground floor of the Cheras condominium on December 30 was indeed the husband of the assaulted woman in the clip that went viral online recently, and if he had lodged a police report on the matter prior to his death.
In a series of tweets on December 31, online whistle-blower Edisi Siasat, which goes by the Twitter handle @ES_EdisiKhas, had claimed that the man was murdered days after he and his wife filed the report against an officer with an inspector rank for the assault, which took place in an elevator.
Edisi Siasat also uploaded the disturbing 45-second video on its account, which has since garnered over 11,000 retweets.
“The victim lodged the report at the Cheras district police headquarters on December 25 and died on December 30. He was threatened numerous times to withdraw the report.”
In a statement on Saturday, Jalil had said that preliminary investigations found that the man had committed suicide by jumping off the 20th floor, and that police found no evidence of a crime.
He said a CCTV recording showed the victim entering an elevator alone and exiting it on the 20th floor. An alcoholic beverage and a face mask were found on the same level.
He added that based on eyewitness accounts, the victim was living alone after his wife left him on December 7.
“Police deny that the victim was murdered by a police officer with an inspector rank, as has been made viral on social media. I advise the public not to make any speculations,” he said.
On November 19, Selangor police chief Arjunaidi Mohamed had reportedly said that the 35-year-old suspect who beat the woman was a corporal detective stationed at the Selangor police headquarters.
“We took immediate action by transferring the officer in question from his duties as a detective to undertake administrative work while further investigations are being conducted by the Kuala Lumpur police,” he was quoted as saying by Harian Metro.
Meanwhile, when contacted today, Cheras deputy police chief Annas Sulaiman said to The Vibes that police are still conducting a full probe into the suicide case, but refused to divulge further details pertaining to the investigation.
"The CID is probing the case under a sudden death report and has issued a statement. I can’t supersede them and issue a separate statement,” he said. – The Vibes, January 3, 2022