BUTTERWORTH: Five men were arrested by the police after locking up, beating and threatening a male victim for violating the terms of the automatic teller machine (ATM) card agreement with illegal loan sharks (Ah Long) on Nov 7.
North Seberang Perai district police chief (SPU) ACP Noorzainy Mohd Noor said a complaint lodged by a man that his younger brother had been held by Ah Longs on Nov 6 led to the arrests of the five local men at a house in Sungai Petani, Kedah.
“The complainant reported that his brother was held by the five suspects at a house near Sungai Petani, Kedah for owing Ah Longs.
“Based on the information obtained, police raided a house in Sungai Petani on Nov 7 at about 4.30 pm and arrested all the suspects and rescued the victim,“ he told a press conference here, today.
He said, the results of the investigation found that the suspects admitted to locking and beating the victim for violating the conditions of ‘renting’ an automatic teller machine (ATM) card.
‘’A police investigation found that the victim had made a new ATM card and taken out a sum of money from a bank account which was given to him by one of the suspects, without prior approval.
‘’The victim was then called for a discussion with one of the suspects at the house but instead he was locked up, assaulted, threatened and forced to settle a RM3,000 loan,’’ he said.
Noorzainy said police also seized some ATM cards, parang, metal rod, homemade sword and several cellphones.
In another development, Noorzainy said police also crippled a drug distributing activity after arresting four local individuals including a woman, aged 26 to 43 years old, and seized drugs worth RM40,729 during a raid at an apartment in Jalan Harbour, here, on Nov 6.— Bernama
