Local arrested, two Indian nationals rescued from PJ restaurant - police

 

The police said they have rescued two Indian nationals and arrested one local man who worked at a banana leaf restaurant in Petaling Jaya, Selangor.

This comes after a video interview of Indian national Velayutham went viral, in which he recounted the abuse and exploitation he allegedly suffered in the one-and-a-half years he worked at the restaurant.

“On June 18, at about 2.30pm, the Petaling Jaya police received a police report from a local female complainant about the viral video on social media.

“Based on that report, the police launched further investigations and subsequently rescued two victims who are male Indian nationals, aged between 22 to 34 years old, who were current and former employees of the restaurant.

“Based on early investigations of the two rescued victims, the police carried out an arrest on a local man, aged 33, who was formerly the supervisor at the restaurant,” said Petaling Jaya district police chief Mohamad Fakhrudin Abdul Hamid (above) in a statement today.

He said the suspect has six prior convictions involving criminal and drug-related cases.

The man has been remanded for six days up to June 24 for further investigations under Section 13 of the Anti-Trafficking in Persons and Anti-Smuggling of Migrants Act 2007 (Atipsom).

Section 13 of the act deals with “offences of trafficking in persons by means of threat, force.” It carries a sentence of a jail term between three and 20 years as well as a fine if convicted.

Meanwhile, the two victims have been placed in a men’s shelter house for 21 days under an interim protection order under Section 44(2) of Atipsom.

Previously, the police examined the viral video of Velayutham, who spoke in an interview with Indian actress Lakshmy Ramakrishnan on Indian channel Behindwoods Air.

The police then conducted a joint raid at the restaurant with the Department of Labour and the Council for Anti-Trafficking in Persons and Anti-Smuggling of Migrants (Mapo), where they found six local workers and one foreign worker from India.

Mohamad Fakkrudin said the foreign worker confirmed during a police interview that a colleague suffered burn injuries last year.

One of Velayutham’s allegations was that he witnessed a colleague doused in petrol and suffered burn wounds after the colleague threatened to expose sexual abuse allegedly perpetrated by one of their bosses.

In the viral video, Velayutham also claimed that his wages were withheld the whole time he worked at the restaurant.

Human Resources Minister M Saravanan also previously said one individual was arrested for further investigation during the multi-agency task force raid at the restaurant. - Mkini