Victim of alleged gang rape tries to take own life

JOHOR BARU: A teenage girl who claims she was gang raped by nine soldiers was hospitalised after attempting to jump off a building last month, sources familiar with ongoing investigations said today.

According to the Malay Mail Online, the 17-year-old girl wanted to jump off the rooftop of the Kluang Parade shopping centre at Jalan Sentul in Kluang on January 16.

However, a security guard on duty at the time talked her out of committing suicide, and later alerted the police about the incident.

The sources also said they believed the girl’s boyfriend, a 22-year-old army private, was the mastermind behind the alleged gang rape in mid-December last year.

“The victim, who worked as a salesgirl, initially did not elaborate about her predicament to the authorities due to fear,” one of the sources told Malay Mail Online today, adding that police discovered later how the military personnel had forced the victim to have sex with them for several hours.

The victim did however lodge a report at the Kluang police station at 8.52am on February 22, stating she was angry at what her boyfriend had done to her and demanding action be taken on all the suspects.

Following the report, a team from the Kluang district police Criminal Investigations Department’s (CID) sexual crimes unit initiated investigations and liaised with the Mahkota Camp’s military police corps’ special investigations branch, the news portal reported.

The victim was also sent to the Hospital Enche Besar Hajjah Khalsom for medical observation.

Meanwhile, sources revealed that military police tracked down nine “rank and file” military personnel, between 19 and 24 years old for their alleged involvement in the incident.

“The nine male suspects were handed over to investigators at the Kluang district police headquarters by the Mahkota Camp’s military police corps at 8.20pm on the same day the victim lodged her police report.

Checks showed all the suspects had been garrisoned at the Mahkota Camp in the last few years.

“The suspects were rearrested by police and had their identities documented to facilitate investigations under Section 375B of the Penal Code for gang rape,” said another one of the sources.

If convicted, the nine face a term of not fewer than 10 years and not more than 30 years imprisonment.

According to the sources, eight of the nine suspects had forcefully taken turns to gang rape the teenage girl for more than two hours at a popular hotel at Jalan Mata Kucing in the Kluang town centre.

“The victim alleged that during the entire ordeal from about 4pm to 6pm, the suspects had forcefully held her head, hands and legs,” the sources told Malay Mail Online.

The sources said the victim and her boyfriend had earlier had sex in the same hotel but that eight other military friends later showed up.

It was then that her boyfriend told her to have sex with them as well, and when she refused, the men forcefully gang raped her instead, the sources said.

Johor police chief Mohd Khalil Kader Mohd confirmed yesterday that the suspects were arrested last Thursday and have been remanded for seven days until March 1. -FMT