TELUK INTAN: A 21-year-old man has been arrested over the rape and murder of teenager M. Divya Barathi, whose body was found in a drain in the Rubana oil palm plantation, 8km from here, last Friday.
Hilir Perak district police chief Assistant Commissioner Goh Kok Liang said the suspect, who was picked up from his house at the same estate early yesterday, has been remanded for a week to facilitate investigations.
Goh said police had also released a 16-year-old student from SMK Horley Methodist (ACS) here, who was allegedly the victim's former boyfriend.
"We recorded his statement and initial investigations revealed that he was not connected to the case."
As investigations intensified, family and friends of 16-year-old Divya Barathi were still coming to terms with her murder.
They felt that Divya Barathi would have been alive today if she had only listened to advice and not used the shortcut through the plantation.
Her mother, P. Letchumany, 35, said her husband would usually pick up Divya Barathi when the bus dropped her off at the guardhouse at the entrance to the estate.
"The guard would call and inform my husband and he would pick her up on his motorcycle," she said.
On Thursday, the day before she was murdered, Divya Barathi had walked from the guardhouse by herself until someone spotted her and informed her father.
Her father, K. Murali, 43, a security guard at the estate, immediately got on his motorcycle and picked her up.
"She didn't like to trouble her father, and now she is gone."
Murali, who was holding on to his daughter's biodata book when met at their house, said he wished he had known his daughter better.
"I didn't even know her favourite colours... now I know it's black and red."
Recounting the day his daughter went missing, Murali said he had been up all night looking for her since 7.30pm.
"I called her best friend, Miena, and she told me that she had reached home by 5pm. I quickly got my friends and family together to look for my daughter. We also lodged a police report."
He said the search party had passed by the place where her body was eventually found several times.
"We shouted out her name all around the estate but she was eventually found just 100m away from my front door.
"I saw her mud-covered body and the way her killers tried to hide it with leaves. It just broke my heart and I collapsed," he said, adding that his friends carried him home.
"If she had fulfilled her dream to be a teacher, she would be have been a role model to her sisters.
Murali has three other daughters, aged 3, 6 and 12, and an 18-year-old son.
Meanwhile, Divya Barathi's classmate and best friend, R. Miena Lochani, 16, said she was the last person to be with her before she was murdered.
The two girls had attended a study session to revise for a Bahasa Malaysia paper on Monday. The two took the bus home around 4.30pm.
"When the bus reached my stop, I asked Divya Barathi to come with me as her father could pick her up from my house. That's what she usually did if we had to stay back at school.
"Divya Barathi refused. She said her father had just received a bonus and she wanted him to buy a gown which we had been eyeing. We had planned to get matching gowns for Deepavali," Miena said when met at her house in Taman Maju Indah here yesterday.
Miena, who broke down during the interview, said she should have tried harder to make Divya Barathi come home with her.
"I couldn't concentrate on my exams. I keep seeing her face. I just can't believe that my best friend is dead."
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