Unable to break safe, thief burns religious book in Skudai

JOHOR BAHRU: A religious book was burnt by a robber who failed to steal money from the collection box at the Surau Al-Hidayah, Jalan Pertanian, Taman Universiti, Skudai, yesterday.

Johor Bahru North deputy district police chief Supt Beh Eng Lai said the incident occurred after a resident passed through the surau area at 2.10am and found the door and the grill gates were opened.

“The man (the complainant) then brought his friend along and returned to the surau for inspection and found that the mobile fan unit was missing, copies of the Quran and Yassin were scattered while some large shelves and clocks were also moved from their original position.

“Inspections also found items in stores such as lights, vacuum cleaners, copies of the Quran and Yassin, prayer mats and electrical wires were also scattered,” he said in a statement yesterday.

Beh said the man and his friend also found several sheets believed from the Quran burnt near the passage to the bathroom and lodged a police report for further action.

He said police investigations later found there was no sign of forced entry at the surau entrances, however there were marks on the safe where the money was kept apart from other equipment being scattered all over the place.

He said checks on surau bathrooms found the burnt papers were not from the Quran as initially suspected as the pieces were believed to be taken from a religious book.

Beh said from the initial investigation, it was believed that the suspect burnt the religious book when he failed to get his hands on the money in the collection box that was kept in a safe.

The case is being investigated under Section 380 of the Penal Code for stealing and Section 427 of the Penal Code for mischief, he said. -FMT