GEORGE TOWN, Jun 12 – An 18-year-old boy was allegedly ragged and assaulted by a group of youths outside a burger shop near a mosque in Gelugor here last Friday. T Nhaveen, 18, has been declared “brain dead” at the Intensive Care Unit of the Penang Hospital. Police have arrested five suspects, aged 16 to 18, on a preliminary charge of rioting.
According to family members met at the hospital, Nhaveen and his best friend Previin, 19, were working as promoters at a supermarket in Bayan Lepas while waiting to enter college. Nhaveen was supposed to head to his college in Kuala Lumpur on Saturday.
In the 2.21am incident, Nhaveen and Previin were buying burgers at Taman Tun Sardon Mosque near their home for supper when they met two former schoolmates who started to taunt Nhaveen. The two were alleged to have bullied Nhaveen in school for being effeminate. The victims and the youths then started teasing each other before the victims told the duo not to disturb them.
The youths then called their friends and six other youths arrived on motorcycles to the scene and started beating the victims with helmets and hands. Previin, meanwhile, fled the scene and later sought treatment for his injuries at the Penang Hospital. The attackers then took Nhaveen to a field nearby at Jalan Kaki Bukit, where he was further beaten.
What happened at the padang was not known, but an unconscious Nhaveen was taken by a brother of one of the assailants to the Penang Hospital on Saturday. There, emergency personnel treated him for severe head injuries and a wound on his groin which oozed blood.
Nhaveen was later placed in the neurological ward at the hospital’s Intensive Care Unit. Doctors told his family members that there was evidence of forced penetration to Nhaveen’s anus and there was also injury to his private parts and burn marks on his back as well.
Nhaveen’s mother held a press conference today with lawyer Baljit Singh at the hospital, demanding that the hospital authorities conduct a thorough examination of Nhaveen. Baljit, who is also Gerakan’s legal and human rights bureau chief, urged police to investigate the matter thoroughly.
Meanwhile, northeast police district chief ACP Anuar Omar said five youths aged 16 and 18 were detained for alleged rioting. Of the five, two were form five students and two college students while the fifth was unemployed. He said all the five youths tested negative for drugs.
He said they had been remanded for four days from Saturday to facilitate investigation under Section 148 of the Penal Code. Anuar said there was no any closed-circuit television camera at the scene of the incident. He also added that the suspects have admitted being involved in the incident. — PN
