Bully victim: Cops ignoring report

A polytechnic student claims that five classmates nearly circumcised him by force.

KUALA LUMPUR: Five bullies held down one of their classmates and threatened to circumcise him, but police have refused to act on a report of the incident, according to the alleged victim.

R Rajiv Singham, a 20-year-old student at Politeknik Sultan Azlan Shah (PSAS) in Behrang, Perak, said Special Branch officers interviewed him and his mother and one of them advised the latter to forgive the five, saying he did not want the issue to turn racial.

Rajiv’s mother, R Sharimala, said she had since found out that the father of one of the assailants is a police officer in Bukit Aman.

The mother and son, who live in Pantai Dalam, spoke about the issue today in an interview with FMT.

Here is their story:

On the night of Feb 24, Rajiv went to a room occupied by a classmate named Hairil for help to complete his assignment. Another classmate, Fizrin, was already there. Shortly afterwards, three others—classmates Nazrul Faiz and Asyraf and “another guy”—entered the room.

Asyraf started a conversation about circumcision and soon started shouting “Sunat, sunat.” (“Sunat” is Malay for “circumcise”.)

One of the boys pressed down Rajiv’s thighs and another held his arms. Another boy produced a pair of scissors and tried to remove his track bottoms. Nazrul made a video recording of the entire episode.

They released him after about five minutes of struggle. Nazrul then played the video recording and threatened to post it on Facebook.

(It was not clear what they wanted from Rajiv, but Sharimala told FMT: “I believe that they were going to sodomise my son.”)

The following day, Rajiv’s class monitor, Iman, told him that he had seen the video. Rajiv then decided to lodge a report with principal Izatul Marini.

Izatul told Rajiv the polytechnic would take action after a discussion with the director of the polytechnic. She also said she wanted to discuss the matter with Rajiv’s family and advised him against lodging a police report.

The principal then held a meeting with Rajiv and three of the bullies. Asyraf, Hairil and Nazrul gave their statements to the principal. The video recording was found in Hairil’s computer. The principal made a copy to keep as evidence.

No action by school

Sharimala lodged a police report at the Brickfields police station on the night of Feb 25, and Asyraf, Hairil and Nazrul were arrested the following day.

One Inspector Teynmoli from the Slim River police station subsequently called her and said the police report against the five should be withdrawn.

Mother and son then went to Slim River, where he told police officers that he was also bullied in the first and second weeks of February.

In Slim River, Special Branch officers interviewed the two separately. Officer Manimaran interviewed Rajiv and Officer Ishak interviewed his mother.

“Ishak told me to forgive the five so I asked whether it was because they were Malays,” Sharimala told FMT.

She said the police officer told her he did not want the issue to become a racial problem. She declined to withdraw the report.

Sharimala also said she subsequently met the PSAS principal and several teachers but was told that the polytechnic could not take any action because a police report had been lodged.

[Image used is a file photo]